It's - The Metro Herald

OP-ED
Carlos
Thirty-four years ago, I attended
the Delos Nine Symposium.
This was a seven-day cruise
held on board a ship that toured the
Greek Islands with stops at places such
as Delphi, Olympia, Ios, Santorina,
Patmos, Lindos, Mykonos and Delos.
Participants included about sixty professionals
from around the world such
as Edmond Bacon, the city planner,
Harvey Cox, theologian, Larry Halprin,
landscape architect, Erik Erikson,
psychologist, Buckminister
Fuller, architect, Jonas Salk, biologist,
Margaret Mead, anthropologist, Barbara
Ward, economist, and hosted by
city planner, Constantinos Doxiadis.
The focus of our lectures was Human
Settlements or habitats for people. With
respect to levels of authority, the Delos
Declaration stated, “that broad issues of
land use and urban location belong to
the highest level of government” and
that “decision about neighborhoods
should be in the hands of local groups.”
I listened intensely as Margaret Mead,
then Lady Jackson [Barbara Ward] continued
to read the Declaration: “As
teachers, as politicians, as professionals,
as citizens, as threatened members
of our planetary community, we must
Yes I Can
by Dr. Maya Angelou
take up the work of building a decent
order CHAOS of human settlements, IN THEanything
less than a serious and generous response
lays us open to the ultimate
CRESCENT CITY:
judgment-that we came and saw and
PART III
HURRICANE KATRINA UPDATE
Cardozo Campbell
Special to The Metro Herald
When the land became water and
Water thought it was God,
Consuming lives here, sparing lives there,
Swallowing buildings, and devouring cities.
It was power, mighty power, grown careless
And intoxicated with itself, and
The American people were tested.
As a result of our tumultuous history,
There resides a thought in the American psyche
Which ennobles us high above the problems which beset us.
It appears and evicts despair.
It enters and wrests fear from its lodging.
Simply put, the idea is,
“Yes I can.”
“I can overcome.”
The one time slave says, “I have proved and am still
proving—I can overcome slavery.”
The one time slave owner says, “I have proved and am still
proving—I can overcome slavery.”
The North says, “I have proved and am still proving—I can
overcome the Civil War.”
The South says, “I have proved and am still proving - I can
overcome the Civil War.”
The American people can say rampant crime has not turned
our masses into criminals, and blissful peace has not lulled
us into contented laziness.
This song that was so needed by Americans when it was
written one hundred years ago and needed fifty years ago
by Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, will be of
great use to use, these days, as we reel beneath the blows of
a violent hurricane.
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome, I pray.
Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome.
Let us all pray.
Let us all work.
And, I know, we shall overcome.
My name is Maya Angelou. I am an American.
September 30, 2005
passed by on the other side.”
In an article published in 1971 in
CITY magazine, I wrote, “Are the cities
of today—New York, Chicago, Washington,
Los Angeles, London, Paris,
Moscow, Tokyo, Bombay, Calcuttagoing
to end up as ruins like Delphi,
Olympia, Mistras and Delos Will someone,
someday, sit in the ‘ruins’ of the
Houston Astrodome and read a similar
report 300 years from now, or sooner”
Again I invoke a biblical passage
from Isaiah 43:19 “ Behold I will do a
new thing; now it shall spring forth;
shall ye not know it I will even make
a way in the wilderness and rivers in
the desert.”
Nearly four decades in Cities of
Destiny Arnold Toynbee wrote, “Soul
is the essence of city hood.” No city in
America has a more powerful soul than
that which is associated with the blues,
New Orleans. Wynton Marsalis reminds
us that the blues is about a reaffirmation.
New Orleans will be back.
Cities are defined by people, not function
or geography.
Much has been said about race and
class. One does not have to be a meteorologist
to know that the fury of hurricanes
and floods do not discriminate
and transcend the boundaries of race
and class. What is real is that the accumulation
and concentration of a people
over decades, in an insalubrious environment,
some folk call it the ghetto,
can reduce ones mobility and consequently
their vulnerability to chaos.
When President Bush spoke to the
nation from New Orleans on September
15th he said: “Within the Gulf region
are some of the most beautiful
and historic places in America. As all
of us saw on television, there is also
some deep, persistent poverty in this
region as well. That poverty has roots
in a history of racial discrimination,
which cut off generations from the opportunity
of America. We have a duty
to confront this poverty with bold action.
So let us restore all that we have
cherished from yesterday, and let us
rise above the legacy of inequality.
When the streets are rebuilt, there
should be many new businesses, including
minority-owned businesses,
along those streets. When the houses
are rebuilt, more families should own,
not rent, those houses.”
His words, timely, necessary and
responsive, represent a commitment
and a challenge.
The commitment is that of sixty billion
dollars by the President and Congress
to date. Indications are that as
much as two hundred billion dollars will
be spent on post Katrina reconstruction.
The challenge is to build a 21st
Century city in New Orleans and to set
the standard for design and planning in
rebuilding smaller cities and villages in
the Gulf region. The paradox that followed
the Civil Rights Acts of 1964,
the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its
subsequent extensions and the Civil
Rights Act of 1968, was the re-segregation
of America. The added challenge is
to recognize and reverse this trend.
Shortly after Charles Evers was
elected as Mayor of Fayette, Mississippi,
in 1969, I was dispatched there to facilitate
the award of a water and sewer grant
from the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development. Mayor Evers
was the first black person elected to public
office in Mississippi since reconstruction.
[His brother Medgar was murdered
in 1963.] The first night I spent at the
Holiday Inn in nearby Natchez, I was so
anxious that I could not sleep. Since that
time there has been considerable change
in the number of black elected officials
in the Gulf States of Mississippi, Alabama
and Louisiana.
As of 2004, Mississippi had 892
black elected officials, more than any
other state in the nation followed by
Alabama with 756 and Louisiana with
705. There has also been parallel advancements
in the black business sector.
This provides a formidable foundation
which can enhance opportunities
for equitable economic development.
Having served in the Administrations
of president Nixon, Ford and
Reagan, I can attest to the reality that
left to its own resources our government
cannot be trusted to insure equity
in the award of contracts or in the distribution
of grants. Departing from the
status quo requires energy, integrity,
foresight and courage. Justice requires
sunshine. While it will be a formidable
challenge for the billions of dollars to
go where it needs to go and do what
has to be done so those with the greatest
need will be served and not exploited,
I am optimistic.
Wynton Marsallis, Harry Connick,
Jr., and Aaron Neville, three of the
spiritual sons of New Orleans returned
to the Crescent City following the
wrath of Katrina. Wynton Marsallis
said, “Our city will come back but it
will take the entire country.” Many of
the world’s nations have responded to
Gulf Coast relief needs. According to
the San Francisco of September 17,
2005, Kuwait is donating $500 million
in petroleum products, Qatar has
pledged $100 million, South Korea has
pledged $30 million and eight other nations
have pledged about $80 million.
The songs of the Crescent City’s
spiritual sons are metaphorically as
telling today as they were years ago
when they were recorded. Aaron
Neville sang, “Tell it like it is.” Indeed
appropriate advice for journalists.
The Department of Housing and
Urban Development today released
details of an ambitious
new program to provide up to 18
months of temporary rental housing to
tens of thousands of families displaced
by Hurricane Katrina. HUD and a network
of approximately 2,500 public
housing authorities will jointly administer
the Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance
Program.
HUD is offering local housing authorities
a detailed briefing on the Katrina
Disaster Housing Assistance Program
at www.hud.gov/webcast. In the
coming days, HUD will also offer specific
technical assistance to local housing
agencies to assist them in managing
this new disaster housing program.
“This new program will offer hope
and healing to thousands of families who
lost everything,” said HUD Secretary
Alphonso Jackson. “Working closely
with public housing authorities across
America, we want to speed assistance to
those who need it most and get them
back on the path to self-sufficiency.”
Evacuees must register through
FEMA by calling 1-800-621-FEMA or
applying online for Federal disaster assistance.
It is important that individuals
and households promptly update their
Harry Connick, Jr., recorded “Don’t
fence me in.” Spiritually, a clarion call
from those locked in the ghetto.
The late Louis “Pops” Armstrong,
sang these words, as familiar to New
Orleans as gumbo and jambalaya,
“When the Saints, go marching in,
when those Saints go marching in,
Lord I want to be in that number, when
the Saints go marching in.”
• • •
Carlos C. Campbell, Formerly Assistant
Secretary of Commerce for Economic
Development, U.S. Department
of Commerce (1981–1984)
HUD DETAILS NEW KATRINA DISASTER
HOUSING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
The unprecedented tragedy of
Hurricane Katrina has uprooted
thousands of people from their
homes, livelihoods, families and neighborhoods.
Many have responded to this
upheaval by offering their churches,
their communities and even their
homes as places where displaced
Americans can find a new place to call
home—for however long that may be.
“The outpouring of generosity and
hospitality has been awe-inspiring,”
says LIRS President Ralston H. Deffenbaugh,
Jr. “We have spoken to pastors,
volunteers, government officials
and families from across the country,
seeking our advice on how to successfully
sponsor a family.” It was for these
caring Americans—each striving to
find a way to reach out to those displaced
by the storm—that our guidebook
was created.
The Guide for Sponsoring Displaced
Americans is based upon
decades of experience in refugee resettlement
and is meant to help light the
path for others. It provides practical advice
and raises questions for congregations
to consider as they embark upon
the journey of creating welcoming communities
for our brothers and sisters
from the Gulf Coast. The guidebook offers
tips on identifying immediate needs
and accessing aid from disaster relief
FEMA registration information with
any change of address or new telephone
numbers so they may receive assistance
in a timely and direct manner. Displaced
families will decide where they
would like to move. Upon arriving in
their new community, the evacuated
family will meet with the local public
housing authority that would help them
to find a suitable place to live.
Families will be given a rental subsidy
based on 100 percent of Fair Market
Rent in that community. Eligible
families include displaced public housing
residents; Section 8 voucher holders;
other HUD-assisted households; and,
pre-disaster homeless individuals who
were directly affected by the hurricane.
HUD is the nation’s housing
agency committed to increasing homeownership,
particularly among minorities;
creating affordable housing opportunities
for low-income Americans;
and supporting the homeless, elderly,
people with disabilities and people living
with AIDS. The Department also
promotes economic and community
development as well as enforces the
nation’s fair housing laws. More information
about HUD and its programs is
available on the Internet at www.
hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.
LIRS OFFERS GUIDEBOOK
FOR SPONSORING THOSE DISPLACED
BY HURRICANE KATRINA
agencies. Also included is a checklist of
suggested household supplies and a
budget worksheet to help congregations
prepare for their sponsorship.
“This experience has taught us
many things about basic needs, about
the stresses and blessings for both the
sponsoring group and the family being
resettled,” says Denise Peterson,
LIRS Director for Congregation and
Community Outreach. “The most important
element of sponsorship is
building a relationship that allows the
resettled family to live in dignity and
move quickly toward independence.”
The Guide for Sponsoring Displaced
Americans is available for
download from the LIRS website at
www.lirs.org.
Since 1939, Lutheran Immigration
and Refugee Service has worked with a
range of service, advocacy and education
partners to bring new hope and new
life to newcomers to the United States.
LIRS resettles refugees, protects unaccompanied
refugee children, advocates
for fair and just treatment of asylum
seekers, and seeks alternatives to detention
for those who are incarcerated during
their immigration proceedings. With
initiative and stewardship, LIRS seeks
creative solutions to the needs of these
uprooted people regardless of race, ethnicity
or religious beliefs.
20 THE METRO HERALD