Another update?
Okay!
So one of the things that really hit me from the trip to New Orleans is the plight of the poor and the entitlement of the rich. Walking through the poor neighborhoods and seeing that the homes had still not been either gutted or torn down is ridiculous. It has been over a year and a half! Now, really I can see that much of the rebuilding should not even be considered when the city is in such a prime position to simply go through everything all over again. Then, why hasn't it been done? Why haven't the levees been improved instead of simply rebuilt? I can also see why people do not want to leave the area regardless of how dangerous it is. Their livelihoods are there. It is all most of them have ever know. It culturally defines a good chunk of who they are and that I can relate to. Either way these people who have been displaced for this long should have at least something to rebuild with by this point and the fact that they don't is absurd. And the worst of it as far as I'm concerned? How about the brand new, beautiful, reconstructed white suburbia. Not specifically to point to race as much as class here but it is literally impossible to ignore. Really, the thing that this stirred up in me is my own sense of entitlement. Why was I raised in a culture in which things like higher education, a nice house, and comparatively anything that I wanted were available to me. Now I'm not trying to say that I feel any "white-guilt" about my circumstances, rather I feel true guilt about how I have taken everything that I have for granted. I went to college not to get an education, but because I was supposed to. My education came far down on the list of priorities that I had for myself, as attested to by my work towards it and my grades throughout it.
"Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more." -Luke 12:48
Most of what I have been given throughout my life I have squandered. I guess the plus side to this is that I now realize what I have been given; how much more I have been given. I can no longer live in the ignorance of this fact and instead will strive to use and value what I have been given.
Currently Reading... Eve's Revenge - Lilian Calles Barger
Currently Listening to... Bright Eyes - Four Winds EP
So one of the things that really hit me from the trip to New Orleans is the plight of the poor and the entitlement of the rich. Walking through the poor neighborhoods and seeing that the homes had still not been either gutted or torn down is ridiculous. It has been over a year and a half! Now, really I can see that much of the rebuilding should not even be considered when the city is in such a prime position to simply go through everything all over again. Then, why hasn't it been done? Why haven't the levees been improved instead of simply rebuilt? I can also see why people do not want to leave the area regardless of how dangerous it is. Their livelihoods are there. It is all most of them have ever know. It culturally defines a good chunk of who they are and that I can relate to. Either way these people who have been displaced for this long should have at least something to rebuild with by this point and the fact that they don't is absurd. And the worst of it as far as I'm concerned? How about the brand new, beautiful, reconstructed white suburbia. Not specifically to point to race as much as class here but it is literally impossible to ignore. Really, the thing that this stirred up in me is my own sense of entitlement. Why was I raised in a culture in which things like higher education, a nice house, and comparatively anything that I wanted were available to me. Now I'm not trying to say that I feel any "white-guilt" about my circumstances, rather I feel true guilt about how I have taken everything that I have for granted. I went to college not to get an education, but because I was supposed to. My education came far down on the list of priorities that I had for myself, as attested to by my work towards it and my grades throughout it.
"Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more." -Luke 12:48
Most of what I have been given throughout my life I have squandered. I guess the plus side to this is that I now realize what I have been given; how much more I have been given. I can no longer live in the ignorance of this fact and instead will strive to use and value what I have been given.
Currently Reading... Eve's Revenge - Lilian Calles Barger
Currently Listening to... Bright Eyes - Four Winds EP
posted by Dan at 4:40 PM
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