The diaspora of Gulf Coast residents is difficult to comprehend. On television interviews with evacuees often focus on those that say about their relocations… “It’s wonderful here. I’m planning to stay.” I wonder though about those longing for home. A month, six months, a year or years from now, when maybe they can go home… will the same plane or bus be waiting to take them? How will they afford to relocate again… will those agencies be there to, again, help them get on their feet?
A friend of mine here took some offense, and understandably so, when he learned that some of the evacuees seemed to have refused the offer to relocate here extended to them by the city of Cleveland. It is hard though to leave all you’ve ever known and live in a place distant and strange where even the language seems different, especially when you consider how difficult it may be for them to find a way home.
And back home… what of the culture? What will be changing? Do we grieve the losses or celebrate the opportunities? Will the poor be pushed out by developers with more money and clout who see the chance to do what they do, “develop”? Or will the city be left to poverty, marked forever as a place of infamy in which the poor and the elderly were left behind? Is there another alternative? One that brings home the wanderers and provides for them as well? What will become of those ravaged places?
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My next post may not deal with Katrina… I, like so many others, feel the need to turn my attention to other matters… but these people and these places will be on my mind and from time to time I will return to them as a subject…
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