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Park Ridge Residents Not Thrilled About New O'Hare Runway
As the residents of the Gulf Coast keep an eye on Gustav, today marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall along the Louisiana and Mississippi coast. And while, on the surface, it seems most memorials would be confined to that region, there's no underscoring the amazing contribution Chicago made to the relief effort. The city of Chicago opened its arms to evacuees and learned from the experience for its own emergency plan. Chicagoans donated not just money but much-needed water. The Red Cross estimated that roughly 7,000 Katrina evacuees wound up in Chicago while other estimates were as high as 9,000 (one of the highest totals outside the Southeast). The rift between Illinois's politicians seen in Katrina's wake reflected what was happening across the country: while Dennis Hastert questioned the decision to rebuild (reasoning that's not nearly as outlandish as it originally sounded when read in context), Mayor Daley expressed outrage at FEMA's refusal for assistance. And, of course, who could forget Chicagoan Kanye West's dramatic declaration during the nationally broadcast telethon?
My Katrina experience coincidentally included a stop at O'Hare; I had been away for a week in Wisconsin for a wedding and my flight back home to New Orleans was canceled due to the approaching Katrina. All I could do was sit in an O'Hare terminal watching CNN's coverage of the evacuation, call my friends to see where everyone was headed, waiting for the next flight to Alabama where I would set up shop at my parents' house. It wasn't my first brush with Chicago, and I had no idea I'd eventually wind up here on a permanent basis, but looking back at not only the kindness I personally received from my Chicago-based friends and the O'Hare workers who knew my situation and did all they could to help but the reaction of Chicago as a whole, it's no surprise that when I left New Orleans a year after Katrina, I relocated here.
The examples listed above don't even begin to scratch the surface of the way Chicago reached out to what, in many ways, is a sister city (that Bears-Saints playoff game aside). It doesn't include the stories of the numerous Chicago-area families who donated their time, money, and effort to the relief cause and opened their own homes to evacuees or the teachers that welcomed relocated students to their already painfully overcrowded classrooms.
Flooding is a concern Midwest residents are fully aware of, especially with more recent events. And the faulty levees that gave way and flooded New Orleans aren't just a localized problem; it's a national issue. It's estimated that there are faulty levees in 28 states and Levees.org has supported a bipartisan effort called the 8/29 Investigation to look into what went wrong in New Orleans and how that can be applied to levees nationwide.
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And here comes Gustav.
http://hurricane.accuweather.com/hurricane/storms.asp?ocean=atlantic&storm=Gustav&imagetype=move&stormNum=6
Battering the shit out of the Gulf Coast right as the Republicans do their happy dance.
MG,
You forgot one of my favorite Katrina moments: Sean Penn trying to get his fishing boat motor to work on St. Charles in an utterly shameless attempt at Liberal piety.
Sleep well New Orleans, If Gustav hits, Sean Penn will be there, and he has a 5 hp motor!
Chris: How could I ever forget? That said, he and his cup did more than many gov't officials.
I've been in Chicago for 2 years now and that's indirectly because of the generosity of this city. Columbia offered a free semester to those affected by the hurricane. I came to visit a friend who took advantage of Columbia's offer. If Columbia did not open its arms to my fellow students, I don't think I would be living here now. Thanks, Columbia.
Why isn't Chicago showing this film?
http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com/
Vvroanhorse - Lord, I don't know. Hope it makes it's way here ASAP. For now, I'll settle for Spike Lee's When The Levees Broke, an amazing work.
My girlfriend, who I also live with, is a Katrina (I still have a hard time with those labels, refugee, evacuee, victim? She's none of those) person I'll just say. She hails originally from the Bay Area, but went to Tulane, and just stayed after getting her degree.
I can't begin to tell you how much shit she has been through without somebody playing the finger violin, but it is inspiring to say the least how much a positive attitude she still has after going through the whole ordeal of having her entire life as she knew it, friends, job, home, *GONE*, in an instant.
Gone.
Everything she had, everything she had worked so hard to achieve, all of a sudden, was wiped out. She is just one of hundreds of thousands of people who had to deal with the same thing, I guess just dating somebody who went through it really sheds some light on the whole thing.
It just really puts things in perspective for me sometimes, that I really can't bitch and complain about petty problems. As she doesn't even bitch and complain about the shit she had to endure.
Whenever we are watching something Katrina related on TV, like When The Levees Broke or something, I'll glance over at her and see a tear running down her face, and all I can do is console her and imagine that feeling. That everything you were doing today, could be gone next week. It's so permanent. So final. So absolute. There is no going back in time and ever erasing those painful memories.
She took me down there last year for my birthday, and it was such a great, vibrant city. The people were amazing, the places, the general overall positive, can-do attitude. I saw all of the devastation of the 9th ward, all of the remnants of the storm, people who left the X's on their doors and what not. It's sad, yet at the same time, it was awe-inspiring, to see the people rising up, helping out, and rebuilding. And although I love Chicago, I could see myself living down there one day.
My utmost respect and admiration goes out to all the Katrina Survivors, and all of those who pitched in and helped out when they needed us most.
you know ... and this will probably be unpopular, but i'll say it anyway:
i think that the aftermath of katrina was far more of a tragedy than september 11th. it's not to say that all of the lives lost on that day weren't unique and their own individual tragedy. they were. but we were attacked and it was something that happened that was an act of war and terror and people *immediately* came together and wasted no time in taking action to see that people were rescued and that others were properly laid to rest and that everything was being done for everyone involved.
in katrina, you had a situation that was equally out of control (meaning there wasn't shit anyone could do about it), but ... there was. people had been saying for a long time that the levees were fucked. and no one cared. no one had the money to fix them. maybe they still would have broken because the storm was so crazy, but the fact of the matter is, we'll never know. because whether they're white or black, this country (esp. GWB) doesn't give a fuck about POOR people.
and then we let people starve and drown and rot and die. we, the people. we, the government. i don't mean each of you, i mean each of them that were entrusted to act on our behalf. the ones with the helicopters and the means of airlifting food and the national guard. the ones who can wiretap a phone and waterboard a prisoner without any permission from anyone, but couldn't seem to get any food or water to people who were dying in the superdome.
i can't even fucking imagine. and truth be told, this shit happens in numbers to squash this all over the world more times than we care to acknowledge. earthquakes and tsunamis and floods. killing tens of hundreds of thousands of people. and we send our money over "there" wherever that is, and we only could figure out how to give people a few hundred dollars on a debit card to rebuild their lives.
it's not to say i don't have compassion for those starving and being crushed by tsunamis elsewhere. but i think it speaks poorly to the state of the nation when our leaders like to invoke the name of a god they say they worship and hold so sancrosanct, but when it comes to 'the least of them,' they couldn't give a shit.
Smussy,
What part of hundreds of millions of dollars in personal donations from across the country means "couldnt give a shit" to you.
Last time I checked the whole country bent over backwards to help the people of New Orleans. I was in Dallas at the time and worked the night shift at the shelter set up in Reunion Arena.
I was completely shocked at the attitude of entitlement displayed by the Louisiana refugees. I wasnt surprised when upwards of $60,000 in FEMA debit card cash was spent at a single Houston strip bar. The biggest concern for most in the shelter was how put out they were that they would now have to share Reunion Arena with all those "Mexicans" that were evacuating in front of Hurricane Rita.
New Orleans has so much to be proud of, but it also has (long before GWB) the symptons of a culture of graft and society that has all but imploded. Katrina did not cause this, it merely exposed it on National TV.
The only thing left to do was direct the blame. Good ole guilt-riddled White America was happy to accept. Exhibit A: the above post. It's an easy way to fleece the country in broad daylight, but it doesn't solve anything.
Not until the shameful in N.O. are shamed will there be any progress.
Chris-
Unfortunately, there were some who took advantage of the generosity of the country and misspent funds as you said. However, this represented a small percentage of people, just as the looters post-Katrina represented an even smaller percentage. Without excusing that behavior, media hyperbole unfortunately drove home the worst rather than the hundreds of thousands (myself included) who were humbly grateful for the assistance. That behavior, in turn, angered those who had donated who then questioned why they should give. They had a point, but it's unfortunate for such a small percentage to have ruined it for everyone.
Smussy does have something of a point as after that, the attitude towards New Orleans has been one of "why isn't it fixed?" That culture you spoke of was in place long before Katrina, as was the class and racial rift. And it's these exact reasons WHY it's still not better. It's a long road to recovery, to salving the wounds that have been festering for dozens of years and we can't expect it to be fixed over night. New Orleans is an essential American city and all those of us who are connected to it can ask for is that America shows patience as the city continues to rebuild.
MG-
I think Smussy's point was loud and clear:
"this country (esp. GWB) doesn't give a fuck about POOR people"
I couldnt disagree more, and feel the numbers (personal as well as taxpayer contributions) back this up. Americans are some of the most charitable people on Earth. When I was in Dallas at the time of Katrina you couldnt swing a dead cat around and not hit some sort of Katrina relief clothing drive, food collection, donate your paycheck, or let a family stay in your home type of charity.
My point is that Smussy's point is complete self-righteous, out-of-touch, I watch too much Anderson Cooper-bullshit.
Futhermore, I feel that a "why isnt it fixed" attitude towards New Orleans is probably justified at this point. Do you not agree that the Katrina relief effort was nothing short of a collison between billions in relief funding with a system(at all levels of gov't) so well versed in graft that it would make most banana republics blush.
I think America does care, and that the people of NOLA deserve nothing less than a "why isnt it fixed" accoutability from their local and state officals. The crime rate in NOLA is a perfect example...this isnt a time for complacency....how about some compassion and the National Guard!
My worry is that the political system in NOLA has survived Katrina intact (hello Nagin's still there!) and that a good portion of the cities people are still vulnerable....not b/c America didnt care, but b/c nobody demanded, "why isnt it fixed."
Chris -
You're right in that it's not fixed thanks to the government. The reason it's not fixed yet is of those billions of relief dollars, only a fraction actually went to Orleans Parish (and thereby NOLA itself). Katrina was so large it affected dozens of parishes and counties across four states so that relief money was divided up. NOLA gets all the attention but Mississippi got it even worse. And total damage was $81 billion. And much of what NOLA DID get went to rebuilding economic infrastructure and those damn levees (which thankfully held today). NOLA's #1 business is tourism. With the place a wreck, no one is going to visit; with no one to visit and no where to live, none of those service industry workers could return; without those workers, none of those businesses could operate, etc. And most of those private landowners who lost everything didn't have insurance so they couldn't pay to have their house rebuilt.
Also, remember that 80% of the city was underwater. This isn't just one neighborhood, it's 80% of a major American city, several thousand square miles.
Also, America's perspective of New Orleans has always been that of "The Big Easy," a bunch of lay abouts and "Girls Gone Wild." All many know is the scene on Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras (a scene, ironically, dominated by tourists, not locals - locals are busy serving those tourists drinks and cleaning up after them). Sometimes the reputation is deserved - but I assure you, if it was Chicago, LA, or NYC, people would not be asking "Why isn't it fixed yet." And many, many locals (myself included) din innumerable clean-ups and volunteer efforts to clear debris, clean the city, and do some of those civic services the city itself just didn't have the means to provide in the months after the storm.
As for the American public, yes, they were very charitable. As someone who received that charity, i can't criticize it. It was amazing and almost unfathomable how charitable the country was. But too many times in the past three years, I've read criticisms of the GOOD PEOPLE of New Orleans for the reason the city still isn't fixed and I find that people's patience with New Orleans is greatly shortened. I've read in the papers in the wake of the midwest floods this spring of residents saying, "We didn't wait around for government handouts like people in New Orleans did." That hurts because it's not like anyone was hoping to lose everything they owned to get a gov't handout. And it's hard for people to fathom the sheer vastness of the destruction.
In the past two years, since I've moved here, I've been lectured as much as I've received any sympathy (not that I looking for any). Yeah, there were a few bad apples; there always will be. And the taxpayers who donated money have every right to be angry. But you can't blame the entire city for the actions of that bad 1% of the population. Also, don't think those of us who saw those actions are trying to create excuses for those that misused charity and misbehaved. If anything, we're angrier than the rest of you about it.
But, mainly thanks to the 24 hour news cycle, people here "New Orleans" and think "is that STILL a big deal?" To me, the American's public attention span is as short as it's collective heart is big. If that makes any sense...The American people opened their hearts like I've never seen in my lifetime...and then moved on to the next disaster. Living it, at least that first year after the storm, it was easy to see it was going to take years. The expanse of devastation left us asking, "Where the hell do we even start?" Not to sound arrogant or aloof, if you didn't see it with your own eyes, it's impossible to even imagine. Hell, even if you DID see it, it's impossible to still process.
I went to help out in Biloxi and New Orleans just over two years ago with Chicago Cares. I wrote about it in my little blog -- the post is still there, on August 22nd, 2006.
Took my vacation time, said, "Well, fuck sitting on a beach, I want to do something."
We can talk and shout and be angry but that kind of stuff doesn't rebuild houses. I'm not saying everybody needs to drop everything and pick up a hammer, that's just what I felt like doing, that's all.
But to see somebody say thank you, and mean it with every fiber of their being, you have to live something like that to really understand it.
And to see a city fucked beyond belief from this hurricane? Jesus, it's hard to think about even now, and when I saw it, it had been a year since the hurricane hit! It looked like a war zone. There was at least a decade's worth of work, maybe more, but if we had all come together (there's still time), imagine how much better it would be now. These were all regular people and their lives and houses were wiped off the map.
You're right, Marcus -- after I saw it, my life hasn't been the same since. I think about that kind of stuff every day now. It makes me feel older in a way I can't explain.