Tomorrow morning we leave...
Tomorrow morning we leave for New Orleans and then Biloxi, where I'll be helping out with the Delta State research project. When I signed up for this trip months ago, I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to get first hand experience in the field, gain valuable career skills and hopefully help out in an area where people were trying to put their lives back together after such huge and painful disturbance. I've been following the recovery on NPR since the hurricane, and have been repeatedly touched by the stories of how hard its been for people to reconstruct their lives and also by how hard so many people have been trying to help.
I've also been outraged by the stories of the governments woefully inadequate response and the ways that racism and classism amplified the disaster and continue to hinder the recovery. As frustrating as it has been to hear stories of survivors treated like criminals, I am not surprised. Until we as a nation make addressing the social inequalities that exist in our society a priority, we cannot hope to end these injustices. It is my hope that as New Orleans and the surrounding areas are rebuilt, that we will make efforts to address some of these issues.
As it would turn out, I will be viewing this trip through the lens of my own personal recent painful experience. This last week, my partner's grandparents passed away from old age and illness. I loved them as my own grandparents, and will miss them very much. And as I carried both there caskets this week to their final resting place, I couldn't help but think about how life really is one big process of rebuilding. When loved ones pass away, we are left with the reconstructing our lives to fill in the voids they leave. Even moving away from home and starting a new graduate program requied a preiod of revisioning and reconstructing lives for ourselves. Obviously, the hurricane is a sever case, above and beyond what most people deal with in their life, and total displacement is different than a voluntary move. But still, it is through the simple shared experiences of life that we find common ground and provide empathetic response to our neighbors. I hope that this week provides ample opportunity for the sharing of stories and for the forging of connections so that if something like this happens again, we might know how to respond better.
I've also been outraged by the stories of the governments woefully inadequate response and the ways that racism and classism amplified the disaster and continue to hinder the recovery. As frustrating as it has been to hear stories of survivors treated like criminals, I am not surprised. Until we as a nation make addressing the social inequalities that exist in our society a priority, we cannot hope to end these injustices. It is my hope that as New Orleans and the surrounding areas are rebuilt, that we will make efforts to address some of these issues.
As it would turn out, I will be viewing this trip through the lens of my own personal recent painful experience. This last week, my partner's grandparents passed away from old age and illness. I loved them as my own grandparents, and will miss them very much. And as I carried both there caskets this week to their final resting place, I couldn't help but think about how life really is one big process of rebuilding. When loved ones pass away, we are left with the reconstructing our lives to fill in the voids they leave. Even moving away from home and starting a new graduate program requied a preiod of revisioning and reconstructing lives for ourselves. Obviously, the hurricane is a sever case, above and beyond what most people deal with in their life, and total displacement is different than a voluntary move. But still, it is through the simple shared experiences of life that we find common ground and provide empathetic response to our neighbors. I hope that this week provides ample opportunity for the sharing of stories and for the forging of connections so that if something like this happens again, we might know how to respond better.
posted by Megan at 4:24 PM
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