Katrina: Two Years and Counting

Some 733 days later, the good folks of Louisiana and Mississippi still deal with horrific aftermath, every day:

St. Casserole, remembering what was:

...We saw where Katrina's eye came ashore later in the morning. Cell phone and land line calls did not work as we tried to call our friends who stayed in their homes. We didn't know that our hurricane preparations made no difference...

Fr. David Knight, overwhelmed by what is:

I thought also of the scores, SCORES, of volunteers who have come to our aid, who have changed us and who have themselves been changed, I thought of all the people I have gotten to meet, to work with and laugh with and eat with and pray with, people I would have never known otherwise. I thought of that great image of St. Paul, the body of Christ, all connected, all vital, all needed, ALL needed.

And Bishop Charles Jenkins, speaking plainly about what could and should be:

Recognizing our vulnerability, not to terrorism, but to the deadly force of severe weather, I would like to ask the President how he plans to clearly demonstrate his calculation of our people’s worth and his government’s commitment to our safety?

...Does the President realize what hundreds of thousands of Americans are saying when they come to gut and rebuild this city block by block with their own bare hands?

Get serious Mr. President. Make an impact worthy of the scale of this disaster. Rally corporate America to ante up. Name a high-powered “czar such as Colin Powell or James Baker” to run this show. Create a “Herculean clean-up effort” as we did for Wall Street after 9-11. Invest boldly in the rebuilding. Think “Marshall Plan.” Mobilize on the scale of a world power.

The above will at least honor the fact that thousands are investing everything they have left to recover the land and heritage of generations of forebears, and prove you are not choosing inaction as a tactic, hoping we will all soon be washed away.

Those who have ears to hear, listen!