In the Saturday edition of the New Orleans' Times Picayune several quotes reached out and grabbed me. Saturday is the day of the home/garden insert, something that nowadays always has how to fix/rebuild the house and/or garden. I usually find two or three very useful hints or products and this week was no different. On my to-do list is now written the names of three separate products; one to fix cracks in popcorn ceilings caused by the house shaking when the trees hit, one to caulk along the bathtub and a wood hardener product for places that water has damaged but not destroyed wood in the home.

But, also in the home/garden insert this week was an article about Quintus Jett and the Gentilly Project. The Gentilly Project is a door by door assessment of the status of all of the homes in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. Some of what Dr. Jett, (he has a docorate from Stanford), has to say is blunt, but he articulates things that have been percolating in many of us over the past months.

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From the article:

"The concrete results of the Gentilly Project can be found online -- in all, 16,039 homes classified as vacant and gutted, abandoned or occupied. Recently, Jett shared some of the project's more intangible results.

First, he's learned that people need an emotional link with recovery in order to cope, and to participate. "They need some sense of control. They want to believe that they can have an effect on the situation."

He's learned that rebuilding has to be inclusive. "It's about collective problem-solving -- the belief that anyone at any level can give you an important piece of the puzzle."
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In the immediate days after the storm it was easy to see the effect we had on the recovery. We could see driveways and streets emerge as we cut paths through the downed trees. We could see the huge milestone of getting our office back 16 days after the storm. We could literally see the lights come on.

Now, the progress is not so obvious and it is discouraging. It is so much easier to see what is Not Done, than to see what is. It seems as if what is not done is so very much harder to accomplish than cutting trees out of the streets. The enormity of the disaster is overwhelming when the tasks at hand change from gutting one's own home to rebuilding a bridge in Mississippi or a school system in New Orleans.
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The article continues:

And he's (Jett) experienced first-hand the dual nature of disaster: Call it the fight-versus-flight response.

"The literature from the '60s and '70s on disaster response has two competing hypotheses: one, that the bigger the disaster, the more outpouring there will be of help. Or two, that when the catastrophe is too large, people don't pitch in because they feel too helpless," Jett said. "I've seen that competing tension in New Orleans." ..............

..........."New Orleanians keep emphasizing their problems to the national audience, and that those problems should be fixed because this is such a unique and special place. Instead, they should be emphasizing that building can and is being done. If we show the progress, we can entice help. People don't need to love New Orleans in order to come and fix it."
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YES! I am so sick and tired of feeling like and hearing us talk as if we are victims. Yes, the Corps of Engineers built horrible levees and they should be held accountable and Yes, the insurance companies are not fulfilling their obligations and that is morally reprehensible and Yes, some of our elected officials have been ineffectual and lack even basic leadership skills....BUT, we have rebuilt in. spite.
of. that. We are strong. We need to own that.
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Jett continues:

Finally, we need to change the local narrative from destruction to recovery.

"Everyone goes to the Lower 9 to see the damage, but they don't go over to Holy Cross to see the rebuilding there," Jett said. "The way we're thinking about this needs a paradigm shift. There's too much focus on process -- on getting everything planned before you begin -- and not enough on destination, or where we need to go."

Basically, what he's saying is that if you're stranded on a desert island, you build a hut. You don't sit back and plan a mansion for the future.
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I sincerely hope that the local, state and federal elected officials read that! Every time I hear folks from Mississippi or St. Tammany parish talk, they talk about what is being done, not what is being planned. This is a lesson that New Orleans needs to learn.
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And finally Jett says this:

"I wish the rest of the country had a human side like New Orleans, where there's a strong sense of faith," he mused. "Faith doesn't mean that bad things don't happen to you. It just means that you're human, and you work through it."
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On this I disagree, not about the faith part, but that the rest of the country doesn't have the human side like New Orleans. The rest of the country is generous, that is human. There was extreme humanity in the response after 9/11. A town made up of the products of humanity was destroyed by a tornado this weekend. That town is also full of humans and they will also choose to work through it.

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Which brings me to another article in the Saturday paper, an 0p-ed piece by Eliot Kamenitz. He is a journalistic photographer for the paper and explains why he rebuilt:

I have rebuilt and I'm staying because I would be useless anywhere else....

.....The fact of the matter is, everything I believe, how I view the world, everything that I have accomplished through my work and how I live my life, I owe to New Orleans.

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In a perverted way, Katrina has been a gift for some folks. This disaster has forced us out of the status quo. When we have to deal with things like SBA loans, skyrocketing insurance rates, constant nails in the tires and perpetually broken windshields from debris on the road, unavailable carpenters, friends moving, 19 psychiatrists in the entire greater New Orleans area, unpredictable TV service, postal service mishaps and on and on and on....

We are forced to choose to live here. We are forced to examine what our role is in the community and why we are here. We know that we are here for a reason or else why on earth would we stay?

I believe this is a gift, not one I would have requested, but a gift none the less.