Today is the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I can still remember walking into my mom’s house, glued to the tv for hours, struggling to figure out how New Orleans managed to be submerged under water. It was a traumatic experience. Mostly for the people who experienced it, but also for the black people around the country that witnessed it. As we watched brothers and sisters sit on top of their homes for three days waiting for help and getting shot down for “looting,” many of us saw our own faces and the faces of our own families drowning under that water.
It set off a whole chain of events in the media… most well remembered is Kanye’s infamous statement.
As well as this amazing documentary… Trouble the Waters (which you can now pick up on DVD)
Yet despite the attention from the media, filmmakers and the like. Four years later, little progress has been made to rebuild Katrina and no progress has been made to get the original black residents back home.
Today is also Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy’s funeral and burial. This morning he was eulogized by President Barack Obama
As summer closes on 2009, a lot of us are reflecting back on how many we have lost this year. I’m not sure how much more I can say about all of this loss. But what I will say is that it is up to us to not let Senator Kennedy’s death be in vain. Going forward, let us all commit to making our voices heard in the fight for health care.
Last, but certainly not least, today is Michael Jackson’s birthday.
As we celebrate the life of Michael Jackson, let us also not forget his important political project. Through his music he sought to create a kind of unity, love and social justice that he never had the opportunity to see in his own life.
Although seemingly such three different figures/events, perhaps it is appropriate that we celebrate/remember all of these lives together. All of these figures have pushed us to think about those less fortunate then ourselves, those who have been forgotten and gone uncared for in this country and around the world.
Maybe it really is as Caroline Kennedy said in her uncle’s memorial service yesterday, with their death, we can no longer look to someone else for the work to be done.
What ties all of these lives together is the way in which they push us to think about a broader, more inclusive and more involved version of social justice. One that considers the needs of the poor back people who have been unable to return home, as just as important as the needs of the temporarily laid off middle class family who cannot afford health insurance.
Let this time of remembrance be a time of rebirth of our activist spirit… ase’
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