All For the Children (Because of Katrina)
I spent approximately four years of my life working in public policy in Washington, DC, and the one phrase that I became absolutely tired of hearing come out of politicians’ mouths was: I believe the children are our future. No kidding? How long did it take you to figure that out?
Well, now I’m back in Louisiana and out of public policy, so I need a new least favorite phrase. I don’t have it yet, but I suspect it will have something to do with Katrina. Why? Because I’m already tiring of every single thing that happens being blamed on the storm.
Your waiter is late getting hot bread to the table? Katrina. No crayons for the kids’ menu? Katrina. No plugs for that flat tire? Katrina. Chad Turner hasn’t published any articles this semester? Katrina. Actually, I haven’t either….that’s definitely Katrina.
Anyway, you can imagine my horror when I came across this post on the Times Picayune “Voices of Katrina†Weblog:
Children lined the streets playing with sticks, riding bikes, bouncing basketballs. The elderly would sit on porches, fanning a breeze, chatting about days gone by. Young men walked the streets, brown bags in hand, carrying what little hope they had left for their futures.
I honestly wasn’t going to post anything about this until the author of the post put the words “children†and “future†two sentences apart. That was enough to push me over the edge. The author goes on to discuss the lives of the children, the young men, and the young women of a not-so-nice section of the city:
Their routine rarely varied. One day ran into the next. Then a shooting would happen and the streets would clear for a day, maybe two, then return to normal. This was their future, marked out for them by a society that had forgotten its rich history. Then came Hurricane Katrina, August 29, 2005. There was no more hiding these people who had been left behind for decades. This time they were left behind for all the world to see.
I’m posting this because I hope to start a discussion (and I hope people read the entire post on the Times’ website). Here are my questions to get things going:
-How does “a society†mark out someone’s future?
-How does “a city†hide people?
-Can “society†cause one person to shoot another?
-How much individual responsibility should we attribute to one’s economic condition?
-Is there really a lack of economic opportunity for those who seek it?
NM
March 4th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Being that i’m from the westbank i can relate to this article because for years the government has been placing people in section eight homes for years putting families of eight to ten people in three bedroom apartments expecting them to survive. Yes, society can make a person shoot another person when the government purposely tears down one housing project and move all those people in another housing project. Mostly every ward on the eastbank was beefing and even the police couldn’t control the violence so the government made them neighbors so they could take each other out. I believe hurricane katrina was a blessing because it clean our city something our government couldn’t do.It was sad to see the people that were left behind on t.v but it was the government fault for building the housing projects below the levee. Most people who stayed in the lower ninth ward road public transportation, so someone should have had a plan to save those people which was mostly children.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Society has always placed marks on people. Especially America, they have serious problems trying to categorize people. People live their lives the way they decide. Nobody can determine a person’s future, but God. Society can place how ever many marks it can. Society can not make a person. It is up to a person to decide what future he or she wants. They are insane people in the world who are trying to live out what they see on television.