Subject: New Orleans: One Year Later
Date: 11:39am 8/29/06
New Orleans, Louisiana
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
I am here in New Orleans. A second line jazz procession is just now beginning in the Lower Ninth Ward. The "3 Presidents" are here: Bush, Bush, and Clinton. Wynton Marsalis has arrived in high performance with a serious positive force. The Preservation Hall musicians have returned to play. Choirs and players in churches and bars and courtyards and living rooms are making music. People are praying and playing and working and marching and rebuilding their homes here in New Orleans.
We have a lot of intense emotions gathering together here today as we remember the thousands of lives that were lost one year ago. The seriousness of the tragedy called Katrina is echoed throughout the city. As a National Disaster, New Orleans is directly reminiscent of last year's La Conchita Mudslide (California, January 2005), and Hurricane Rita (Gulf Coast, September 2005) - in that, people died, homes were ruined, and danger remains in a critical way. It is now crucial for our national government to focus on disaster response and strategic disaster planning.
Be inspired by the people continuing to do what they do as best they can in light of the tragedies that hit. Come on America. Do what ever you can. Let's clean it all up. Let's rebuild. Let's make our nation strong again.
"You don't know the chorus of this song?
You must be busy." - Wynton Marsalis
No comments:
Post a Comment