The Voice

Hurricane Katrina’s wrath and devastation should have impacted America unlike anything else our generation has ever seen. The destruction and sense of loss surrounding New Orleans in particular has dominated most news sources in the weeks after the storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.

We have all become familiar with images of not just houses, but homes, completely submerged in flood waters. Almost every day we see the tears and testimonies of people who have lost everything they have ever owned. There is no such thing as a job. There is no such thing as home. There is no such thing as a hometown.

Many students have voiced their opinions concerning the evacuees of New Orleans. We have all heard the ignorant claims of others who claim that they don’t feel sorry for the victims because they could have left before the storm hit. It wasn’t that simple.

Much of the population of New Orleans is comprised of extremely low income households. There are many citizens in New Orleans that literally did not have the means to leave the city when they learned of the storm. Imagine having no car and no money to otherwise escape what was predicted to be a deadly storm before it even made landfall.

Imagine sitting at home, expecting to die, because you can’t leave.

It is difficult to imagine how some people can be so insensitive as to blame the victims. Instead of pointing fingers, how about taking action? Our campus has made an effort to reach out to those in need through “Change for Change,” a volunteer-based effort to help students make donations to the cause. There are numerous other foundations and relief efforts, such as The American Red Cross, that make it easy to help.

Imagine the difference we could all make if every student and faculty member donated just one dollar. The devastation may seem far away or seem not to affect us directly, but we can have an impact. We encourage and challenge you to convince everyone you know to make any type of donation or contribution possible, or to volunteer your time to help these people less fortunate than us.

Just put yourself in their shoes. You’d take any help you could get, wouldn’t you?

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 16 2005. Filed under Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry