The city of New Orleans has canceled plans for a comedy hour and a fireworks celebration, originally scheduled to mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. That’s good news.
There is nothing fun or festive about thousands of people trapped, without the basics necessities of food, water and medical care, in the sweltering heat, floodwaters rising around them. There is no joy to be found in mass devastation or in mass neglect. The federal government’s failure to quickly respond to those residents in need is, after all, the biggest tragedy of them all. This is not a time for New Orleans -- or any other city -- to celebrate. This particular anniversary should be used as an opportunity to remember and reflect and to reaffirm the commitment to rebuild this culturally rich city.
While Katrina affected other Gulf Coast cities, it was New Orleans that we paid the most attention to, and with good reason. When those levees broke and water started rushing in to the city, we realized that many of those left behind, with no means to evacuate as ordered, had two things in common: They were black, and they were poor. On August 29, 2005, the nation’s eyes were opened -- for a short time, at least -- to the reality of urban poverty. People were saddened and outraged. Support and promises came rushing in. New Orleans, we were told, would be rebuilt. A year later, the city is showing signs of rebirth. But it’s slow going. Too slow. And more needs to be done.
According to the Brookings Institution, an independent research organization, the city’s public services are slow to bounce back. Gas service, for example, is currently only reaching 41 percent of its pre-Katrina numbers, and electric service is only at 60 percent. The New Orleans labor force is smaller than it was a year ago, and the unemployment rate, just over 7 percent, is higher than it was last August. Rent and home prices are at an all time high; the storm caused a housing shortage and, though building is ongoing, it can’t keep up with the current demand. There are still thousands of city residents without a permanent place to call home.
On the one-year anniversary of 9/11, this nation came to a standstill. In cities across America, at exactly the same time, people stopped their lives and marked the precise moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center. The names of the dead were called off, one by one, in tribute. Casinos did not have their grand reopening, yet that’s exactly what Biloxi, Mississippi planned. While important to the local economy, it should not be used to mark such a solemn occasion. Katrina anniversary events should memorialize the loss of life and mobilize support for those in need.
Jazz funerals -- a New Orleans tradition, with their slow, somber start and their upbeat endings -- are a nice, appropriate way to mark this anniversary. But, to truly pay tribute to the men, women and children who died and suffered, perhaps those that, in one form or another, failed the residents of the Gulf Coast, could publicly acknowledge the collapse in leadership and reveal a plan for getting this city back on track. That’s a commemorative effort that will mean more than any poster or concert ever will.
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Judge Greg Mathis is national vice president of Rainbow PUSH and a national board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
