I'm also proud as hell to be from there.
My parent's home is right on a canal that leads to Lake Pontchartrain and, luckily, on stilts but, the water still rose to 8.5 feet. The water came up to the bottom of the house. My father's shed is ruined, along with all his belongings that were in it (except the Harley, of course). He used his boat to rescue elderly neighbors down the street who were trapped. The neighbors have lost everything.
They were luckier than most. Of the 137,000 some odd residents of his parish, 103,000 have suffered property damage or have lost everything. It's reported that 12 people have died. Hundreds injured. So, so many are homeless. My parents are lucky and I'm so happy that after Katrina my dad had the good sense to rebuild his house in the air.
My Alma Mater, Southeastern Louisiana University, has been asking for volunteers daily to help neighbors with clean-up. Anyone from freshmen to athletes have been in the community helping with the messy aftermath that is a monstrous flood.
Friends and relatives of mine all over the country have been donating the best they can or just packing up and heading home to help.
It's disasters like this that prove to me, once again, that the human race is a strong, if quirky, creature. We argue about simple things like religion, income, and color. But, when we really need to, we come together like no other species I know of. We are all possessed with the same spirit of helping our neighbor and it makes me proud to see. And, I may be biased here but, I think that southern people embody this feeling just a tad more than the rest of the country.
And I'm so proud of our ability to see past all the bickering and come together to help one another.
Until....The Advocate, Baton Rouge's main newspaper, wrote an open letter to the president expressing their disappointment that he had not yet visited the flooded areas. Read the letter at The Advocate's page here:
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_f1ce22ee-64b4-11e6-b11a-a393ff25161d.html
The strongly opinionated piece, printed as an editorial, complains about the president's golf game and laments about former president Bush's fly-by following hurricane Katrina.
Baton Rouge, this is not what we need right now. The president, I'm sure, is very abreast of the destruction to the state. As, I'm sure, he is very much aware of the hundreds of thousands of people who are homeless and displaced in California due to the wildfires there.
For President Obama to come to the affected areas would cause a media storm, disrupt the relief efforts, and be a general nuisance to the Cajun Navy trying to do their damn best. What exactly do you want him to do? Roll up his sleeves and toss sandbags in front of the many cameras that follow him around?
Sure, he could do that. I'm almost positive he wants to. There are many, many security people and strategists that stop him from doing things like that all the time, I'm sure. But, really think about it. Just stop, take a deep breath, and think.
Think about what you could be using your print space for instead. Maybe notifications for those who are missing people? Maybe they are missing pets? Maybe post more stories about the community coming together to help? That's a different story than the pulling apart that has been plaguing the capital city for the past year.
I get it. Feel-good stories don't always sell papers. But, I can promise you that you will lose more subscribers with this political baiting than you will when you show how our community is one of unity.
President Obama doesn't need more press. Trust me. The Cajun Navy needs more press. Off-duty cops making neighborhood checks for safety need more recognition. People who save strangers and their dogs from sinking cars need to be highlighted.
Like Mr. Rogers said, "In times of trouble, look for the helpers."
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