Two States of the Union

Last Friday, my wife communicated with a good friend who led a humanitarian trip from Racine, Wisconsin, to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Their small group gathered, wrapped and handed out a truckload of Christmas gifts, primarily to children, to those who lost their homes in the hurricane. That communication reminded me that the president said nothing about the states of Louisiana and Mississippi in his State of the Union address.

Katrina, arguably the most devastating natural disaster in our history, was never mentioned. It was a notable part of the president’s State of the Union address in 2006. In 2007, it was notable only by its complete absence.

I was very pleased to hear the president mention our national commitment to continuing to help combat poverty and disease in Africa and to hear him single out the need for the world to respond to the crisis in Darfur. Those are conditions that I care about a great deal and I want them to remain on the national agenda for the coming year and well beyond.

But, the poverty that was revealed in New Orleans, the diseases that befell many of the storm victims, and the utter devastation that was visited upon countless homes and families in the Gulf Coast demand the continued humanitarian attention of the federal government as much as anything outside our borders demands such attention. No one thinks for a second that Louisiana and Mississippi have even gotten close to recovering. Forgetting about them, or just ignoring them in the State of the Union, is inexcusable.

Because jazz can be heard in the restaurants and bars of the French Quarter and crews are again displaying spectacular floats in Mardi Gras parades doesn’t mean things are back to normal in the Crescent City. It just means that the party façade has been put back in place. Of course, for the vast majority of Americans, that façade is what New Orleans stands for; it’s what people feared they had lost; it’s what really matters to too many people.

But this commentary can’t be limited to the president. What about the rest of the government? Other than the congressional delegations from the impacted states, who else in Congress is paying attention? Other than a couple of reporters who became identified with covering the storm and its aftermath, like Anderson Cooper, how often is the media paying attention? Not often enough.

What about us? I made donations that were directed to the Gulf Coast in 2005, but I didn’t in 2006. I signed petitions and wrote to elected officials about the Gulf Coast in 2005, but I didn’t in 2006. In 2006, I acted like all that mattered were the events outside of the United States – in Iraq and Africa and Mexico and China – but not at home. Who am I to criticize the president if I’m not willing to walk my own talk?

This is an example of how something like the war in Iraq can drain not just the fiscal resources of our country, but deplete our ability to pay attention and respond to other matters of great significance in our country. We’re so focused on making ourselves secure from terrorism that we’ve lost sight of the need to make ourselves secure from the poverty, disease, and destruction that are already present in the homeland. Katrina doesn’t represent the threat of destruction. It is the all-too-real presence of destruction.

When the president finally went to New Orleans after Katrina he gave a dramatically backlit speech in Jackson Square. He vowed, "We will do what it takes; we will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities. This great city will rise again." The city has yet to rise again, notwithstanding Bourbon Street being afloat with music and mint juleps. We have not yet done what it takes to rebuild a city that is still missing hundreds of thousands of its former residents – because they have no place to live.

Espousing a decidedly Eastern philosophy, one with which I wholeheartedly agree, the president reminded us that night that, “Nature’s trials remind us that we’re tied together in this life, in this nation — and that the despair of any touches us all.”

There is still despair in Louisiana and Mississippi. Perhaps we all need to be reminded periodically that we’re still being touched by that despair. Perhaps we’ve become a little numb to the touch.

We can do better at responding to that touch. The first step is to simply remain aware; then to continue caring; then to continue speaking about it; then to continuing doing whatever we can to help – like that small humanitarian group from Racine, Wisconsin.