My Visit to the 9th Ward
This blog normally very closely sticks to the subject of e-mail marketing and online fundraising best practices. Today I’m going to stray from that to share a few personal thoughts.
Last week I was in New Orleans for the Public Radio Marketing and Development Conference. It was a wonderful conference and I’ll share some links and thoughts from some of the sessions in future blog postings. I was very pleased that we went to New Orleans for the conference. Providing tourism is a great way to help the city and I was happy to provide extra tips to the cabbies and bartenders throughout the week. I ate some incredible food, drank the spiciest Bloody Mary I’ve ever had, and had a great time walking along Bourbon Street and people watching. If you stayed in the French Quarter, you might not have any idea that Katrina was less than a year ago. If you’ve always wanted to vacation in New Orleans, do it now.
At the NPR sponsored lunch NPR’s John Burnett talked about covering Katrina and brought tears to many. He encouraged everyone to journey outside of the quarter to see the devastation in the lower 9th ward for ourselves.
Yesterday I did just that. Michelle Jeffery from Vermont Public Radio and I got in a cab and visited the lower 9th ward. Words can’t express how we felt driving past rows and rows of houses that were flooded and twisted beyond imagination by Katrina. There were watermarks on the houses near the roof and red marks indicating when houses were checked by emergency workers and if there were people or animals inside. There were cars turned upside down. There were piles of what was once someone’s belongings in front of houses. One pile had a Barney doll on the top of it. It was just so hard to believe that Katrina hit almost a year ago and the community is still this devastated. I felt sad and sick and mad that this place that was once a neighborhood of artists, musicians, and the working class people who serve the tourists could still look like this!
Michelle and I both decided not to take any pictures because the pictures just couldn’t convey what we were seeing all around us. Also I usually take pictures of things I want to look at again. I don’t want to see that again but I’m glad I saw it once and it will fuel me to want to keep doing what I can to help those who were impacted.
Don’t get Katrina fatigue! Rebuilding will take years and help is needed. Do what you can to help the people, the musicians, the schools, and the culture.
This video on YouTube was taken several months ago but the 9th ward still looks much the same as it does in this video.
It’s hard to look at this but I hope you’ll take a few minutes to think about what you can do to help those impacted by Katrina -- whether it is going to New Orleans to get wild on Bourbon St. for a weekend or sending books and musical instruments to help rebuild the schools, or sending money to the relief agency of your choice, please keep helping.
