Katrina

Katrina was truly an event with few equal and among those with similar levels of destruction, I cannot think of any that suffered so badly from basic human justice issues. Usually events like this bring out the best in people, but I'm getting ahead of myself. While the event itself was of major importance, I feel like not enough attention is given to certain less subtle issues. Why did it take a catastrophe to get much needed attention for a city that has truly struggled? But even then, was the help effective?

Americans, and people the world over, have been far more giving than years past when it comes to money, food, and time for events that need it; however, is that money truly put to good use? We have many large organizations, like the Red Cross, that are the face of humanitarian aid, but when we give them our money, it generally isn't received to help only that particular crisis. Logistics, staffing, other theaters of operations, these are among the many parts that make up the overhead of these overly large aid organizations. While they do a decent job of getting food and water out, and an influx of aid workers, I feel as if they, in some ways, create as many problems as they address. Don't get me wrong, food, water, and medical attention are beyond important and events like this, but when we bring in these large influx of workers that have no invested interest in helping the locals, other than the tingly good feelings of helping another human, we create a dependence and a rift of power.

The people in need become dependent on the organizations power to provide, not forever, but enough that that power is shifted. Whether you eat, whether you bathe, or how much water you get is up to the larger body of a worldwide organization. But the root of the problem really occurs later, when it is time to rebuild, all the money is gone, set away for future events or other areas of immediate need and people are left to wonder how they can ever make their home, well, home again and gone too is the spotlight for creating that flow of donations. What I am challenging here is the notion that we should be donating to large groups with varied interests, and why we don't donate to community organizers directly. People who can do good, create lasting change, and have a personal stake in the well being of everyone around them. It seems silly to imagine a day where we see advertisements on our TV's and computer screens asking to donate to people like that, but imagine what they could do? Imagine how great it would be when businesses can get back up on their feet again with real community wide momentum. Imagine the great rebirth that would take place with such an opportunity to make change. What I feel like the inhabitants of Katrina were left with after the storm, was nothing like that. Despair. Nothing less than total despair. And the storm was certainly the worst part of those events, but the slow return to how things were before the storm was far from great. In the media spotlight one day, for better or worse, then out with the news cycle the moment the city was safe, from mother nature.

It may be a tad naive to think that such a slight change and how we handle things could create a much better world of possibilities, but I really feel like a change like this addresses many of the issues deep in our past. Such as when we talk about the freeing of the slaves, we talk about it in terms of how the North freed them from the tyranny of the south and not how they often saved themselves. We directly alter the narrative of history and change to hide how it starts with one person, not a nation or a government and how it spreads through their familes, their friends, their communities, and on up. Lasting change comes from the bottom, but today we let it come from the top. And, to my greatest regret, I think it is because we don't know any better.

My time learning about social justice has been brief and it is sadly an opportunity I rarely get as a computer science major, but it has certainly been sweet.