| Hurricane Katrina’s victims have suffered through and endured what will surely be marked as one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, despite being largely abandoned for several days by the federal government. Now, as flood waters recede in New Orleans and clean up begins across the Gulf, these survivors must use the painful lessons this ordeal has imparted to empower themselves, their families and their communities. By doing so, they will ensure that they will never again be privy to such neglect and victimization.
The people of the Gulf Coast were hit by two disasters: Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the federal government to respond to it in a timely manner. According to recently released reports, Katrina ravaged the Gulf for nearly five hours before Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, requested any aid for the region. The airline industry says the government didn’t request help with evacuating storm victims until three days after the storm hit. While no one had any way of predicting just how much havoc the storm would wreak, news reports indicated Katrina would come down hard. As New Orleans and other cities evacuated, preparing for the worse, it doesn’t make sense that the federal government didn’t have an emergency response team at the ready. If they had, many more lives could have been saved.
Many experts estimate it will take nearly $200 billion to rebuild the lives and communities that were torn apart by Hurricane Katrina. How this money is spent will directly affect the futures of those affected. It’s ironic that the federal government – the same government that was slow to respond when these tax paying citizens needed them the most – is now discussing how the funds should be allocated. | | Gulf Coast residents must organize and become active participants in the rebuilding process – Katrina’s victims cannot let those who abandoned them dictate how they reestablish themselves. Citizens in this overwhelmingly African American and impoverished region must lobby for funds that can be used to create job training centers. With gainful employment comes economic empowerment, and economic power breeds independence.
On Sunday, March 7, 1965, civil rights marchers, attempting to bring attention to voting rights violations, peacefully walked east out of Selma, Ala. They only made it six blocks, to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. There, law enforcement officials attacked the demonstrators with tear gas and billy clubs; several marchers were injured. The assault was captured by news media and televised for the entire nation to see. Americans saw firsthand the brutality and victimization Black citizens endured. Support for the civil rights movement swelled after "Bloody Sunday."
Hurricane Katrina will be this decade’s "Bloody Sunday." The country – and the world – has witnessed the way this government grossly undervalues the lives of the poor and the lives of people of color. Americans, Black Americans in particular, have a duty to rally around underserved and marginalized populations in the wake of this disaster. Our brothers and sisters in the Gulf must lead the way.
Editor’s note: Judge Greg Mathis is Chairman of the Rainbow PUSH-Excel Board and a National Board Member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. |
