Last summer our camp in Mississippi was closing and we had to find alternate housing. I contacted the URJ, the RAC, Federation - no one seemed to care. Ultimately, we went to Camp Restore in New Orleans.
I had made three trips to Mississippi after Katrina. I was disappointed that we were going to New Orleans. Everyone seemed to forget Mississippi in the post-Katrina publicity, and now we were just as guilty.
But it's not just Mississippi. Five and a half years later, the world has forgotten the Gulf Coast. Yes, there was a lot of press last spring following the BP oil leak, and the networks had Katrina retrospectives on Labor Day. But those quickly faded.
But the need persists. New Orleans, the most visible benefactor of support, has miles of vacant and abandoned properties. Imagine driving down Central Avenue, and seeing shopping center after shopping center boarded up, grass and weeds growing in the parking lot. That's what it's like in the suburbs of New Orleans - and it's been over five years.
The United States is often first to help other countries in the face of natural or man-made disaster. That's a record to be proud of. But we must remember our own. As the flight attendant says, affix your oxygen mask first, before helping others.
We can all stand tall, Woodlands Community Temple and Dobbs Ferry Lutheran Church. We give our time and money, and our friends and congregants open their wallets, to help us remember our own.
Ken ye-hee rah-tzon
No comments:
Post a Comment