This time next week, we’ll be back in the States. I’ve been mum so far on our State-side situation, letting Paul take the reign on discussion of our thoughts and conflicts. Reading about what is going on back home is sickening enough… I haven’t been able to stomach the thought of taking the next step and writing about it.
The bottom line is that we don’t have a clue what we are going to do when we get back — the choices eat away at us daily. Katrina changed our worlds drastically, even if those outside of it seem completely unable to comprehend the level of destruction and chaos that fills the lives of Gulf Coast residents — most especially those in Southeast Louisiana. We feel both the draw of going back to a city and home we love and the pull of leaving, because unlike so many others, we actually can. The choice is not one we take lightly or one that can be easily understood.
What hurts the most is the continued play of politics at all levels at the expense of the people of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana. A consolidated levee board is the right thing to do (do we really need another committee to be formed to help the levee committees work together?) yet long-standing tradition, politics, and stubborness halt any change. Blanco, finally showing some backbone, called a special session for Louisiana’s elected officials in New Orleans (rather than Baton Rouge), which began with a bus tour of the city. Many Louisiana officials have yet to see the devistation in the city. As those who know say over and over again, you absolutely cannot even begin to fathom the vastness and terror of the destruction until you have seen it. Some of the responses from officials who took the tour:
Rep. Jean Doerge, D-Minden, who was on her first trip to the area, said she was amazed at the extent of damage. “This is an eye-opener to what we are really facing,” she said. The bus tour “has had an effect on me. . . .I know better what we are up against. It is absolutely unbelievable. You look out here and say it’s been five months and you still see devastation.”
Rep. Donald Cazayoux, D-New Roads, who has made a few trips to the area, most recently in November, called the lack of progress in clearing debris “incredible. I was expecting some movement. It is just so vast. It is a disaster and we need to see it. I think we need to come every three months. There is no change at all.”
Rep. Monica Walker, D-Hessmer, who had toured the area earlier, said that based on what she saw Monday, “it doesn’t look like anything is getting done. This (tour) helps the cause. I don’t think that we are the ones who need convincing.” Walker said more members of Congress and the Bush administration should be on the buses.
All true and poignant thoughts. What is most sobering and painful is that out of Louisiana’s 39 State Senators, only 23 of them took part in the bus tour. To pull from a wonderful Times-Picayune editorial:
“…Gov. Kathleen Blanco had good reason to ask lawmakers to take a bus tour of the metro area Monday to kick off the special legislative session. Legislators are going to be considering bills crucial to the recovery and long-term security of greater New Orleans. They all need to understand the urgency of these matters, and seeing how much is left to do five months after the storm would drive the point home.
Unfortunately, a significant number of lawmakers declined the governor’s invitation. Fewer than half of House and Senate members took the tour.”
How can anyone take any position on the situation in New Orleans without seeing it first hand? In my opinion, they cannot. Choosing not to see it is a strategic political move because it allows continued ignorance of the situation. Seeing the situation would mean accepting responsibility, feeling shame of lack of response, and having to make a commitment to work towards a solution. Ignoring the situation or belittling it (ahem, State of the Union) allows for politics as usual.
The Bush administration rants on and on about the monies it has allocated to Gulf States… but just who is getting the funds? Although Louisiana suffered well over 75% of the housing damage from Katrina and Rita, saw ten times more businesses destroyed, experienced five times more jobs losses, weathered more than 75% of the total property and infrastructure damage, the State is receiving only 54% of the block grant funding. Further, many of the complaints lodged against Louisiana (and New Orleans, in particular), given as excuses as to why the area is getting shafted for relief attention, are false.
But who can fight with a government that rules without law and reason?
Long-standing dreams and goals for both Paul and I are what drive us to live abroad in these coming years of our lives. But the on-going decay of our country and government makes it harder to justify why we would fight to return.
Scott Lemm | 10-Feb-06 at 1:14 pm | Permalink
I am sorry, I must disagree with you.
First, you don’t know if some of those politicians have already seen the devastation and need not return. Don’t let an assumption fuel your fire. Riding that bus is a publicity stunt as much as a fact finding mission.
Second, your comment “why would we fight to return” is the same sentiment that people use in response to why they don’t vote – what good would it do. I feel running away from a city you have eluded to time and time again as precious to your lives and souls is just as bad as the lack of help and assistance for New Orleans. Many great cities returned from ashes – San Francisco, Chicago, etc.. But it wasn’t easy, it took time, and it took local help.
I understand your desired PHD program is a passion that has grown to fruition and I commend you on it. I question your desire to continue with that line of work when there seems to be so much local opportunity for you to help others. I have always seen you as a person that genuinely wishes to help the less fortunate. Again, I commend you on that. Why not help your neighbors, your city, and bring peace while working to prepare improved support/response for future tragedies. Why run away when there is so much you could do at home. Why blog when you can get involved – join a commission, run for council, volunteer on projects (or make Paul do all of that).
I won’t get into the governments role in this disaster (since I also disagree to the extent federal government should play) but I plead with you to stay and help. If everyone left. If everyone didn’t vote. If everyone gave up.
Where would we be?
Holly | 10-Feb-06 at 7:49 pm | Permalink
Excellent points and questions that I’m sure many people think about when they read my blog!
Absolutely, this could not be the first opportunity of State Representatives to tour devistated areas of the city. However, the Times Picayune ran a wonderful graphic where they outlined each of Louisiana’s Representatives, how they have voted at the special session, if they attended the bus tour, and if they had visited New Orleans. The results are pretty damning and alarming. Even with that, I gave benefit of the doubt to all local representatives and the number I quoted (23) was for senate representatives only (in other words, the folks that live in the far northern areas of the State.) Further, as so nicely put by one of the reps that did do the tour, the point isn’t to see it once — but to see it again and again. Additionally, since the special session was specifically for the interest of discussing the situation of the city, starting out with a bus tour was truly a vital and important facet in the decision-making process. And honestly, the devistation that exists 5+ months after the storm is so overwhelming that it needs revisiting. Without seeing it, live, there are no words to describe it. And monitoring and revisiting is part of the deal. But that’s not really the point, anyway. The important point is that many representatives were resentful of the special session and are dis-interested in any policies or programs to aid the city due to long-standing politics and prejudices. They were pissed to be there, pissed to have to think about they don’t want to be involved with, and generally just pissed to have to do anything with the Governor. I think this point is pretty evident considering that all of the Governor’s initiatives at the special session have been completely destroyed and status quo remains. Believe me, I’m not part of any Governor fan-clubs but I do think that there is a point when you’ve got to fulfill some responsibility. (Don’t take my word: see the Times-Picayune for more information.)
As for me, I do not have the energy or interest in fighting the good ole’ boy politics of Southern Louisiana. For one thing, I’m not the right person. I do not have the family money or marriage connections. Having a few Michigan degrees also works against me as a perminent black-eye in Louisiana politics. Plus, I’m not interested in it. And yes, I am suffering from a bit of apathy, but I do vote no matter what. But that’s really besides the point. The bigger issue is that I’m a stuffy academic type and am happy to remain so.
As for working in New Orleans, well, I’m a candidate for a PhD in International Health because I want to focus on international health issues. I’m also of the opinion that social services within the U.S. exist only as figureheads and provide no real change in life or health of the people they are set to serve. Working within that system slowly drains away at my heart and soul. I grew weary of it a long time ago. Sometimes you pick and chose your battles. I love the field of international health for a thousand reasons… like its stimulation and combination of complex issues (globalization, trade, economy, health, development, colonialization, etc.) If I do ever turn back to domestic health, I belive it would be within the scope of Native American advocacy and health promotion. This does interest me quite a bit, but is not where I want to be right now.
Besides all that, raising children who are bilingual and able to negotiate cultural differences is of utmost importance to Paul and I; we aren’t going to gain a level of fluency of Spanish by staying in the States. Our intention has always been to relocate overseas at one time or another for this purpose.
The need for good public health exists in every location and within every population. It is especially easy to make arguments for that need within poor populations — and certainly a city like New Orleans fits that bill (both pre and post Katrina). We absolutely love New Orleans. We love the look and feel of the city: it’s architecture, music, climate, foliage. We have a wonderful neighborhood, are blessed with the best neighbors, and can walk everywhere. We love our house. However, we have a hard time with just about everything else. As great as all those things are, when you consider that we pay basically $1000 a month on insurance and taxes alone — all those things come into perspective. We don’t rest our decisions on finances alone, but Paul and I are pretty thrifty and retirement conscious folks. (And we both feel that we should not depend on our government for retirement or savings and do our best to take responsibility in this regard.) With that in mind, if we raised our children in New Orleans, we would have to shell out $10,000-18,000 per year, per child, for school. The taxes and registration on vehicles would mean we would never again own a new car. We would worry about money one heck of a lot and not be able to save the kind of money we’d like to over the next 10-15 years. At risk of sounding flip, it’s a lot to consider for the trade off of pretty buildings and flowers. These are the kinds of things I mean when I say that it’s a fight to live there. It means we struggle a lot more than we need to make ends meet.
As I mentioned in the post above, if we didn’t love New Orleans, if we didn’t miss it, long for our street, our house, the music, the smells — if those things didn’t matter to us, there would be no choice; we’d be out of there. But those things do matter and they make it hard to think about selling. It would also be another thing if the city was showing that they were ready to improve, to change politics as usual. Considering that the Governor’s initiative to consolidate tax assessment to one individual was shot down as a threat to tradition (see Times Picayune), that is a pretty strong sign that things like our gross inequities in taxes (discussed on Paul’s blog) are not going to change.
Aside from all of that, our next steps are overseas. We don’t know where we’ll end up after that. Tough call: do we keep the house as a rental, taking a monthly loss, in the hopes that we may one day be back to the city? Do we want to sit through a few more hurricane seasons from another continent? Is it worth selling and moving all our stuff… and if so, where? It’s a lot of questions.
Anonymous | 10-Feb-06 at 8:52 pm | Permalink
Lots of good thoughts from you both…
I get hung up on the “need to vote” and “need to fight to come home.” I’ve begun to feel that my taking part in voting is only further legitimizing the fleecing of US citizens the pocketed elected officials perform. Voting for any of them just makes it acceptable in their eyes to continue what they are doing.
There’s nothing wrong with leaving your country for a while until its political pendulum swings and regains some normalcy and smaller undulations. You can do that while loving your country, just disagreeing with how your fellow citizens are allowing it to be run.
The Noise Gate | 12-Feb-06 at 5:14 pm | Permalink
I can see both sides of your leave New Orleans or not dilemma. On the one hand, I’m a big believer in the old saying, “Charity begins at home,” and there may not be a place in the country that needs more help than New Orleans. But social work and politics are closely intertwined. Unless you have a stomach for the political side of it — whether you’re in the US, or trying to cut through red tape, or difficult attitudes from bureaucrats overseas — it will hinder your work. You do have to pick your battles, but at the end of the day, whichever fight you choose, you still need to battle. There’s an old saying, “Politics ain’t beanbag.”
There’s a guy named Bobby Jindal who’s currently a U.S. Rep from Louisiana. His first name is Piyush. He’s Indian. He sure as hell ain’t a good ole boy, but he didn’t let that stop him. Don’t let it stop you, if your heart is there.
There’s not a nonprofit group in the world — Doctors Without Borders, UN agencies, Peace Corps, NGOs, etc — who don’t have to do constant political battle to just effeciently operate, much less attempt to reach their objectives. You need to be prepared for these battles if you’re going to do social work. If you can’t fight the stuffy politicians in America, how can you handle the aggressive politicians overseas? You have to get dirty if you want to bake a cake — there’s just no way around it. And I see you as being someone who’s not just content to write academic papers that no-one reads or knows exists besides other academicians. You have more to give than being a stuffy academic. I’m going to be disappointed if you tell me that. Surely you didn’t go to Michigan and Tulane just for that.
On the other hand, I’m also a big proponent of taking care of myself before I take care of others. Can’t say I’d enjoy paying $1,000 a month on top of my other living expenses — not with two children. This is where having a family is difficult for a career. If other people are in the same boat as you, what I said about New Orleans months ago, then, is true — the city will never recover and be fully rebuilt. It’s just going to become an upper-middle class white outer suburb of Baton Rouge. It’s a shame.
Do whatever’s in your heart. I know you have to survive, but don’t lose sight of why you decided to get into the field of social work and health. Are you having second thoughts about the field?