Bill Shore’s Letters
Letter from New Orleans
Originally published: December 2005
When I sat down in September to write to you upon returning from Louisiana three weeks after Hurricane Katrina, I got on the plane, opened the laptop and the words just poured out. You may recall, I landed back in DC and fired off a letter. Not this time.
During that first trip, a handful of us made our way into the hurricane zone and were overwhelmed by the numbers of amazing volunteers from churches, the Red Cross, and elsewhere around the country who had poured into the region to help. Not this time.
In the first days of the crisis, the immediate needs of the people in New Orleans, Gulfport, Biloxi, and throughout the Gulf Coast for drinking water, food, shelter, etc. were basic and clear. Not this time.
Last week, Share Our Strength did something that not many others have done. We returned to Louisiana. And in larger numbers. We returned with modest but heartfelt financial support and perhaps more important, a delegation we call Hinges of Hope consisting of more than 30 business, civic, media and philanthropic leaders from around the country.
Despite wanting to write immediately after that trip, an entire week has gone by. My only excuse is the challenge of making sense of what we saw as we drove for hours through an American city first flooded, then abandoned, and now paralyzed and alone.
The streets are still piled shoulder high with debris that may take more than a year to remove. Overturned cars dot the neighborhood. Every few blocks for mile after mile, a person can be seen standing by themselves on their porch, staring into the soggy shell of a mold and stench filled house. We spent several days in New Orleans and Baton Rouge visiting the flooded and abandoned lower 9th Ward, the FEMA trailer villages, schools that against all odds have re-opened, and meeting with families, students, teachers, legislators, and foundation officials. Still, we could not make sense of it.
It made no sense that Doris Votier the superintendent of schools in St. Bernard Parish, who was able to cobble together a new school from 18 donated modules and trailers but has not yet received FEMA dollars, couldn't get the city to install a street light on the dark corner where her students each night board the bus back to their trailer or hotel, and remembers that the first help to arrive was from a Canadian Search and Rescue Team.
It made no sense that tens of thousands of trailers could be purchased and congregated into makeshift FEMA villages but that with the onset of cold weather no indoor space could be constructed for residents to meet or families to eat.
It made no sense that the number of members of Congress, outside of the Louisiana delegation, who have come to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation in the state capitol to understand firsthand the rebuilding challenge, is zero.
There is much more to share about what New Orleans is like at ground level than this letter or your heart can hold. It looks much like what you see in the news as the Atlanta aquarium looks like the Atlantic Ocean. It truly must be seen to be understood, which is why we went and why we have committed to return again and again and to take others with us to bear witness. Even if I went on telling what we saw and heard I'd only be describing what we found outside, on the surface and in the streets and this is not the same as what people feel inside, how they ache, how trauma and dislocation have led so many people sharing such similar circumstances to paradoxically feel so alone.
The New York Times editorial this past Sunday, headlined "Death of An American City" argued that We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die. But even more is at stake than the death of a great American city. Such an unthinkable result would diminish the essence of our national character: the resilience, compassion, innovation and determination that have served us well for more than two centuries and made us the envy of the world.
Ironically, it will not be the nation that rescues Louisiana from such a fate. It will be the other way around. The spirit, will, grit, and strength of Louisiana's citizens will, in the end, be the life raft that steadies our own floundering will. You don't have to be in Louisiana for any longer than the three days we were there to know that rebuilding New Orleans is not a matter of "if" but "when." From the thoughtful leaders of the community foundations to the intrepid local reporters, from the optimistic charter school advocates to the Share Our Strength chefs and restaurateurs who are re-opening, passion will prevail over indifference in the long run.
In the spirit of the holidays that await us, I'll leave you with what I learned from Leah Chase, an 82 year-old Creole chef with an indomitable spirit who cooked dinner for us on our first night in town. Her cookbook quotes George Washington Carver: How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.
Our neighbors in Louisiana have come to understand these words in ways they never imagined they would. And now I do too. All of us at Share Our Strength are determined to find ways to help even more. We will continue to make grants and we will continue to bear witness, to go, to see, to feel and to tell. Anything you can do to enable us to continue to share our strength, not just in Louisiana, but as we strive to end childhood hunger across the U.S. would be deeply appreciated and will, I hope, enrich and extend the blessings I wish for you and yours.
Thank you.
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Reader Comments
3 reader comments so far | Add yours
#1 | Posted by Joan Verigood on Monday, December 19 at 6:23pm
God Bless you for all you do.......I will do what I can to help.......Thank you for writing this....It is truly inspirational#2 | Posted by Barb Harris on Tuesday, December 20 at 11:06am
Your letter makes my resolve even stronger to continue to do what I can to enf hunger in America. Thank you for your work.#3 | Posted by Chris Parker Hunt on Tuesday, December 20 at 11:28am
Thanks Billy. Have posted this on my church internal website so parishioners can read too. Its good to get a better understanding of what's going on down there. -ChrisComments for this post have closed.