Finding the Will — Statement from UUSC President Charlie Clements

As yet another hurricane — Gustav — bears down on New Orleans on the third anniversary of Katrina, anxious residents are wondering about how well protected they are.

For two years, under a National Science Foundation grant, UC Berkeley engineering professor Bob Bea and his team have been trying to discover the causes of what he has called "the greatest man-made engineering disaster" in the history of the United States.

He has come to believe that the "...problem that we face in providing long-term protection for this part of the world is fundamentally not an engineering or technology problem. After 53 years of practice, I'm convinced that we know how to do this. The real challenge is mobilizing the will of the United States to help provide adequate protection for this part of the world. At that point, we will put into place the necessary... resources to accomplish that goal. Once that will is mobilized, it can be done. The challenge is, will it?"

In a recent survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the people of New Orleans emphatically stated their belief that thus far we have yet to summon up this will. This survey found a significant majority of residents feel "ignored by policymakers in Washington and forgotten by fellow Americans."

They know the political will, the people, and the resources to address this tragedy have yet to be mobilized. For instance, the highly touted Road Home program has only been able to disburse about 10 percent of its billion-dollar-plus federally funded and Louisiana-administered budget. The other 90 percent remains tied up in bungling, corruption, and bureaucracy that on a daily basis denies New Orleans residents the funds they need to rebuild their homes and lives.

There is something heartening, however, about some of the findings of the Kaiser Family Foundation survey. It uncovered something that we can do something about... that we have been doing something about... that we can do more about: namely, the widespread feeling among so many in New Orleans that they are being ignored by policymakers and forgotten by fellow Americans.

For example, the New Orleans Rebirth Volunteer Center — formerly known as the UUA-UUSC Gulf Coast Volunteer Program — is alive and well today, now managed by the three local UU congregations. Several thousand volunteers in this program have come to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to assist with reconstruction, to learn about the issues of poverty, race, and gender that plagued pre-Katrina New Orleans and have since hampered its recovery. These volunteers have sent a strong message to Gulf Coast residents that they are not forgotten and their lives have been changed by that experience.

Whether or not you have been to New Orleans or the Gulf Coast region, you can join the UUA's and UUSC's national advocacy efforts, which are and have been instrumental in making sure policymakers in Washington D.C. don't forget the needs of communities still recovering from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. You can invite the Katrina-Ritaville Express, a FEMA trailer, to visit your community to remind lawmakers of the conditions in which tens of thousands of displaced residents were forced to live for more than two years. Many of these people have yet to return to permanent homes.

So if you don't want to feel helpless or hopeless on the third anniversary of Katrina, I urge you to become involved in advocacy or plan a volunteer trip to New Orleans. As many Gulf Coast residents have reminded us, "its not over yet." We need you to help us make sure that the "will" that Bob Bea speaks about is mobilized.