Remember New Orleans?
The Times-Picayune feels that they've fallen off the "news radar". And they come out swinging in an Op-Ed today.
The horrors of Hurricane Katrina are seared into the memories of its many victims, but the storm is fading from the national consciousness.
Because of short attention spans, President Bush's recent Supreme Court pick and the Scooter Libby indictment, it is becoming more difficult to keep lawmakers focused on our plight. The president stood in front of St. Louis Cathedral and promised to "do what it takes . . . stay as long as it takes" to rebuild this community. Ultimately, what it will take is a commitment to build levees that will protect the metro area from a Category 5 hurricane.
We don't expect a blank check. But we do need help -- to fix the life-threatening flaws in our current flood-protection system before next year's hurricane season, to begin work on a new levee system that will shield us from the most violent storms, to restore our coast, to bring long-term jobs to an injured economy.
So greater New Orleans is looking to Washington. But Congress' obligation to this area is not merely humanitarian; reconstruction is also in the nation's economic interest.
....But with the scale of this disaster, we need more. So far, Republican leaders have been unwilling to consider more ambitious proposals that would help restart the economy. Congressional Democrats instead of being advocates for our area have focused on promoting their own pet issues, such as the prevailing-wage rules for federal contractors.
Louisiana has hurt its own case. Even sympathetic outsiders say it's impossible to tell who is in charge of the state's recovery effort. To make matters worse, U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter asked in September for a $250 billion grab bag of projects, some of which had nothing to do with hurricane relief. In that one step, our two senators made our state look grasping -- and gave their colleagues in Congress an excuse to tune them out.
Despite all that, despite local governments' empty coffers, despite all the duct-taped refrigerators lining the streets, there is ample reason for hope. Tougher and wiser for their recent travails, plucky residents are getting by on their wits. Schools are opening in trailers in flood-ravaged St. Bernard Parish. In New Orleans, charter schools are emerging to provide the education that a foundering School Board cannot. Signs promoting new and reopened businesses have popped up on neutral grounds like mushrooms after a rainstorm.
This fragile but unmistakable resurgence of life makes Congress' growing indifference to our area's fate all the more frustrating. The creeping abandonment of greater New Orleans could be deadly for us. But it should also appall many others -- Floridians who are almost as vulnerable to hurricanes as we are, Californians who live in fear of earthquakes, residents of the many cities that could fall victim to terrorist attacks.
Ours is an uneasy place to be. Help is easy to come by when people are suffering on camera. But the needs exist long after those images recede, and it is a frightening prospect to fear being forgotten.
Please celebrate KATRINAMAS this year.
Renew New Orleans Foundation
Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation
America's Wetland Foundation
Catholic Charities New Orleans
Abita Brewery Restoration Merchandise
America's Second Harvest
Tell your Congress Critters to celebrate "KATRINAMAS" and don't forget NOLA