Making a Tragedy Worse

by Bruce H, Scroggins

I watch and, listened, and called phone numbers, and ask people, about loved ones, and have spent time looking for lost family, and heard of friends lost, along the way. And my prayers go out to our fellow Americans who have lost so much, and those who are safe, and those who this day are in harms ways.

I look in horror as those most in need, are displaced again over and over again from not only there homes, and neighbor hoods, but from there state, and are to this day completely out of the mix, of the plan for the very land, they own in some instances, and for those who were renting, they have been shoved, and shoehorned into another State. They’ve lost there voice, at a time when those at the table, will set the future for there home, and may tell them about it, only when and if, it becomes necessary.

America watches the TV News Shows, and wonders to them selves, why? Won’t they leave, with all the destruction, and death around them, Americans, say to them selves, “I don’t get it,” well let me relieve your concerns, and inform your minds, and I ask you to open your hearts, just as your faith, and your Pastor, has this past two Sundays. And please I ask you don’t let the criminal acts of a few sway your minds, get you to focused on what is to date a very small part of the problem.

Most of those who refuse to leave know they will not be at the table, and they don’t trust anyone to speak for there interest, in the development of there homes futures, so don’t fall for the side issue of looting, the News Shows, are trying to fill, and be balanced in there reporting, and that’s it. These issues are important issues, but they are still not the most important story.

The people, who are alive, are the story, and America should never forget it. These people, who have been shipped out of there State to another State, are the very people to help those, who are still there, and in distress, the people who lost everything, want a part in there recovery, and let me tell you what a definition, is of recovery, first to recover, you have to know what you lost, and the LOST, and hurting people of Louisiana, know what they lost, and those who remain and refuse to leave know what they have, and will lose if they leave, and they know that many of the voices that they have come to know and have supported them over the years of there life’s, they don't recognize, or trust, and means there voice has been reduced by death, and by displacement.

The talents in those well over 250,000 people shipped out of Louisiana, could have been brought, just outside of town, and the FEMA, and the FEDS, could of spent some money, to and put them to work, after giving them Medical treatment, building the shelters, and then some, could of assisted in New Orleans, in the search and rescue of there fellow neighbors, and these same people could’ve of been made as whole as humanly possible, and would be a catalyst for positive, upward looking, and hopeful outlook on there future, and they would "BE" there when the "TABLE" is set for all Re-development, of where they lived out there life’s.

Now the NAACP, and the URBAN LEAGUE, has the Institutions available to assist in this kind of plan to give the Lost HOPE, it’s a lot simpler, than it sounds. If they can in a hurry, make homes for the Japanese in Arizona, even thought they were woefully inadequate, they can use the very people who have the talent and the blood bought right to be there at the table of there comeback from the lost.