Joe Cussen

Submitted by Stephanie Wert ... on July 18, 2008 - 3:47pm.

Service Trip Participant - 2008

Spending a week on the Gulf Coast allowed me both the possibility to understand in a very real way the problems that still face Louisiana and Mississippi 3 years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita as well as the opportunity, in an admittedly small way, to help those individuals who still struggle daily with the reality of dire destitution. Many of these individuals are working class men and women whose salaries simply are not enough to recover from the total loss of a home for which insurance companies refuse to pay.

Sadly, until seeing this poverty for myself, I have been greatly misinformed on the situation facing the people of the Gulf Coast.

When the Saints trotted out of the tunnel and into a brand new Superdome, the media portrayed a revitalized New Orleans, a city which had overcome great adversity to reclaim its character and heritage. We were shown the much heralded Bourbon St. parties, and were told to celebrate the redemption of a down but not out city. What was not shown by the sportscasters, however, are the hollow homes filled with rubble and wreckage mere miles from the 50 yard line, seemingly frozen in a perpetual state of post-storm trauma.

We were not shown the coastlines of Mississippi and Alabama, whose beaches cannot be walked barefoot for fear of the shattered remains of windows of homes carried out to sea over three years ago. We were not shown the faces of the men and women who were somehow left behind in the Gulf Coast's redemption.

They were left behind by a government who will not rebuild their homes. They were left behind by insurance corporations whose bottom line does not include the humane living situations of thousands of families. They were left behind by a nation, of which I am a part, who refused to acknowledge their continuing disaster.

I am blessed to have been a part of the Beatitudes Society immersion trip. But with my blessing comes a woe. If I fail to act, then I am failing to be a Christian. Through this experience, I have heard God calling me to give my time, talent, and treasure to the people of the Gulf Coast, and to shed light on a problem which has not gone away, and still clamors for redemption.

 

Strengthening the progressive Christian network for justice, compassion, & peace