Spring Break
New Orleans: Helping those who help themselves
By: Ken Kaighan
Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: Ed-Op
Originally published: 4/20/07 at 5:25 AM EST
Last update: 4/20/07 at 5:25 AM EST
Originally published: 4/20/07 at 5:25 AM EST
Last update: 4/20/07 at 5:25 AM EST
Then he started in on his greatest current pet peeve, and I paraphrase:
"And those lazy folks from New Orleans who are still living here off our good graces. It's been, what, well over a year now and they haven't gone back to rebuild a damn thing. You know they have the gall to tell me, 'It's not our job, that's the government's job to rebuild my home. You don't know what it's like to lose everything you own.' And I tell them, that's fair enough, I don't know. But you know what, you give me a year to work and live rent free and I can make back a large portion of what I lost. I always ask them, what have you done this past year with your life? The conversation ends after that."
And that's the reason the horror stories of Katrina bother me so much. First off, it's not the responsibility of the rest of the US to look after the well-being and reconstruction efforts of New Orleans. The primary responsibility is that of the people who lived there willingly, knowing that the breach of those 20 foot tall levees throughout the city would be the end of their neighborhood. Yet still, droves of Americans take their own vacation time to help build new houses in the area, donating time, materials and cash.
But more importantly is the general US public's inability to grasp the concept that reconstruction efforts on this grand scale take time. Nine years for San Francisco. Twenty-seven years for Galveston. Katrina caused multitudes more in monetary damages than these two combined. And here we are, 19 months later, and people have the nerve to say, "I can't believe it's still like this."
Ken Kaighan is a 2002 alumni and regular guest columnist. He can be reached through ed-op@thetriangle.org.
"And those lazy folks from New Orleans who are still living here off our good graces. It's been, what, well over a year now and they haven't gone back to rebuild a damn thing. You know they have the gall to tell me, 'It's not our job, that's the government's job to rebuild my home. You don't know what it's like to lose everything you own.' And I tell them, that's fair enough, I don't know. But you know what, you give me a year to work and live rent free and I can make back a large portion of what I lost. I always ask them, what have you done this past year with your life? The conversation ends after that."
And that's the reason the horror stories of Katrina bother me so much. First off, it's not the responsibility of the rest of the US to look after the well-being and reconstruction efforts of New Orleans. The primary responsibility is that of the people who lived there willingly, knowing that the breach of those 20 foot tall levees throughout the city would be the end of their neighborhood. Yet still, droves of Americans take their own vacation time to help build new houses in the area, donating time, materials and cash.
But more importantly is the general US public's inability to grasp the concept that reconstruction efforts on this grand scale take time. Nine years for San Francisco. Twenty-seven years for Galveston. Katrina caused multitudes more in monetary damages than these two combined. And here we are, 19 months later, and people have the nerve to say, "I can't believe it's still like this."
Ken Kaighan is a 2002 alumni and regular guest columnist. He can be reached through ed-op@thetriangle.org.
doctorj
posted 4/20/07 @ 8:00 AM EST
This writer and article are a great example of what is wrong with this country and this government. I am a native New Orleanian and I have been in the devastated neighborhoods helping these "lazy?" citizens rebuild their lives. (Continued…)