Thursday, August 29, 2013
1 year after: My post from August 29, 2006
As I sit in my office between bursts of activity to
help set up the farmers market, I am torn between joy
at a beautiful morning among friends and incredible
sadness (tears being wiped away furtively) at who and
what is not here.
I write to you, my friends in exile, and friends and
family in other places who offered your help when I
was in exile, to exhort you to remember us today and
all of this week.
For today, at 6:10 am, we start to relive the
nightmare we went through last year. We remember
screaming at the television, spending days and weeks
on our useless mobile phone looking for lost people,
our mounting anger at the powers in our government
that hold OUR money and OUR resources and refused to
use them to rescue our people and our horror when we
did return and view the wreckage.
In some form, this can happen to any city or region,
including yours. And, when it does, the same unfeeling
delayed response from a massive government will kill
innocent neighbors of yours and destroy all that you
and yours have thoughtfully and carefully built, so
take care and listen to what we are seeing and doing
here today.
I woke up in my FEMA trailer today, walked outside and
was glad to see a beautiful sunrise while walking my
dog on the bayou. Within a block, I saw 2 tributes to
the fallen:
a neighbor has a paper hurricane with black wreathed
around it on his front lawn.
a neighbor, who had been trapped in the house next
door by water during, had floated a wooden HELP sign
covered with flowers on the bayou.
I cry now when I think of it.
I expect to see many more tributes today. I expect to
see and hear anger, silly jokes and grateful faces
that are walking around the city rebuilding.
What I hope is that all of you keep telling your
friends and family that we are worth your money and
care. We are thankful to all that helped and do help,
but we are also growing angry at the response that we
have had enough help. This is not a tragedy that is
over; bodies are still being discovered, the
government is still withholding the promised help that
we need and insurance companies are still denying
claims for people who paid their bills for years. We
are still waking up everyday, walking our dogs, and
then, with a sigh, going back to rebuilding our
beautiful city.
Think of us as we do.
Dar
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