Aspiration Toward Inspiration

For those of you who read past links, take note that the organization I went down to New Orleans and worked with was lowernine.org. It’s a small, grassroots organization based out of a mostly-rebuilt home in the Lower Ninth, formed of volunteers from everywhere– Quebec, California, New York, Maine, Michigan… and working with members of the Lower Nine community, who also show up in the morning to help everyone get the work done. The organization was started by a man named Rick Prose. You can read a bit of his story here.

I am asking for a trip back to lowernine.org for Christmas. My experience there was so powerful and the people I met so amazing that I cannot fathom anything I’d want more than to go back and devote more of my time to the most beautiful city I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting (of course, tied with my dear San Francisco). New Orleans has a vibrant culture. The surroundings are as colorful as the people. The artwork is bright and painterly; the music is lively and soulful; the food is flavorful and generously portioned; the architecture is unique and diverse; and the people are all of the above. Never before have I truly met so many people in such a short period of time. The city wears its heart on its sleeve and invites you in to share in its abundant Love. People talk to you and share themselves with you the moment they meet you. This city lacks the facade that most other places I’ve been have. I’ve never thought of my lovely San Francisco as being cold or unfriendly, but in contrast with New Orleans, San Francisco is New York (Sorry, New Yorkers, I had to). Yet, it’s not because Americans are unfriendly or uncaring that New Orleans is not rebuilt– it’s because people don’t know.

One of the things Mack told us while we were working on The Village was how he was initially angry that Americans were not making their trips down to New Orleans, that the rest of the country was not helping the Lower Ninth Ward. He said, however, that as more volunteers would trickle down to their corner of Louisiana, he realized that Americans don’t know how bad things still are down there. The media and government have seemingly forgotten about the lasting effects of Hurricane Katrina and most Americans assume that everything is a-okay again. However, most of the money that was promised to those families whose lives were destroyed by the hurricane haven’t seen their checks come; the community is still in a seeming standstill, with most people’s homes standing just as they did the month after the storm hit.

I urge you to open your heart to the people of the Lower Ninth and give some of your time or money (or hey, both!). The year by which New Orleans is expected to be rebuilt, at its current pace, is 2028.* Can you imagine waiting 25 years to have your home and your city back? That, my friends, is quite frankly unacceptable. We need to change that “current pace” so that people can have their lives back. It is unjust. The state of New Orleans is a wound in God’s side. This is quite seriously one of those topics about which we need to ask ourselves what our teacher, the Christ, would have done. Or Buddha. Or Gandhi. Or any non-nihilist atheist. Every Life in this world is valuable and it is unacceptable to let the lives of those in the Lower Ninth Ward slip through the cracks simply because we don’t have to look at them every day. If you cannot muster a tangible gift of labor or funds to the efforts in the Lower Nine, please keep them in your prayers and/or thoughts.

I believe (and so do others) that the Lower Ninth can be rebuilt if we simply put our hearts and minds in the right places.

I went to lunch with my grandmother the other day. She, in discussing the recent election results, was appalled at other members of our family who voted in self-interest… who, owning multi-million dollar homes (yes, that was plural) and having no small amount of disposable income, were afraid of taxation policies proposed by one or other of the candidates. She reflected on a moment when she returned her stimulus check, sending in a letter requesting that the money be sent to someone who needed it. To people like my grandmother and many others who received those checks, that amount of money was unimportant. $X wasn’t going to make a difference in her quality of life, so why not send it to someone for whom it would? Some time afterward, a news network contacted my grandmother and asked if they could interview her and air something about her on television. She said no. She didn’t want any attention for it.

Most of us spend our money buying ourselves more than we need. I can count 3 things on my desk that I could absolutely survive without having purchased and 4 more things that I probably could have spent less money on. If I could cut back on things like that, I could put that money toward more important things– like, oh, say, feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.

Most of us know this. Imagine if we could Live it.

Can you say “kingdom”?

*According to RAND Gulf States Policy Institute (New Orleans).