News From NOLA

I am winding down a quick weekend trip to NOLA, for my cousin's wedding and a few odds and ends to get ready for future trips. It's pretty weird being here by myself today (my mom left yesterday night and after watching the Chargers TROUNCE the Patriots, today is an alone day so far). I'm used to having the lobby at the Country Inn buzzing with activity, but right now I'm sitting in the breakfast area and there isn't even one other person around ... weird.

Mr. Good is Mr. Gone. I asked some guys about him and they said they haven't seen him since July (which is when we were here). I'm thinking there's a pretty good chance that Mike's efforts with him paid off? i hope so.

I went to the Riverwalk for a few hours today and saw Scott (on the right), he seemed like he was doing well (he doesn't know me, so that was as much as I could get). I talked to some guys and asked if they knew some of our friends - Mac, Ronnie, etc.

They didn't, but I'm hopeful that I can still run into them. I'm going down to Bridge House in a few hours when Bob-Rob gets here. I'm making him walk to see me because I didn't rent a car. I feel like a jerk, but I'll buy him some good food to make up for it.

I love this city, like I know many of you do. The staff at the Country Inn welcomed me by name and gave me an awesome room, so it's pretty cool to see how much they like us. I am going to watch some more sports and relax on one of the few times in my life that I get quiet! But I miss my friends at home and especially my sweet wife and my little monkey-monster!

NOLA three years later ... and Gustav is coming

I can't believe that it's been three years since Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans. I've been there seven times since (and will be back in October, January, and next July) and have seen the entire range of what the recovery and the lack of recovery looks like. I've met homeless guys that are on the streets as a direct result of Katrina, and even gone to our friend Ronnie's beautiful house that he can't live in so he has lived under Claiborne Bridge and other places.

Ronnie is close to getting his house back together, and now, here coms Hurricane Gustav. I can't imagine what is going through people's minds and hearts right now. But I do want to say one thing to Christians that keep claiming that Katrina was God's judgement on the city and other crap: get tuned in to reality.

Your sin is as bad as the sin in New Orleans. I know some amazing people who don't have whatever stereotypical life you think "everyone" there has. What about them? Even in the Old Testament (which is before Jesus changed everything with a single amazing act of grace) God said he would spare paces that had even one righteous man. Well, I've met scores of them in NOLA. So stop it. (Rant over, sort of).

I don't know what NOLA will look like after this next week, Gustav might miss, it might destroy it, etc. But what do we do in response? Some have said we need to close the city forever. Really? If Chicago had another huge fire would we declare it worthless? If another terrorist attack hits NYC are we done with it?

We need to put ourselves in the shoes of those suffering the most in NOLA: the poor, and especially the working poor (again, break down the stereotype. The people of New Orleans are not collectively lazy or unwilling to work, there are other things going in that you and I can't relate to). Who will help them, even as most are STILL suffering after the storm three years ago.

One thing that has struck me over and over in my trips to NOLA - Christians are being out-served by socially-minded people. That sucks, I think. We don't need signs telling people to repent. WE, the church, need to repent for our lack of care, for our addiction to the comfortable lives we have, for our propensity to live the "it sucks to be you" lifestyle. And we need to go get our hands dirty in places down the street, across the world, and, yes, in the Gulf Region. NOLA and the mirror that it held up to our country's issues isn't just going to go away because a Hurricane hits it, but the mirror is going to continue to expose our weaknesses.

Join me in praying that NOLA can rise up ... and join me in being a part of making it happen.

New Orleans homeless - "Please tell our story"

"Are you taking pictures down here?" Billy asked me. I couldn't tell if the tone was supportive or threatening.

"No, I haven't, we're just down here to love you," I answered.

Down here was under the Claiborne Avenue bridge in New Orleans where an estimated 1,000 people have pitched tents, set up abandoned mattresses, and taken to the ground in order to survive. They are the homeless population of the city, but only part of it. Thousands more are scattered across the city.

His answer surprised me - "Take pictures. Take a lot of them. Please tell our story - people need to see what's going on here."

What's going on there is a lot. There is a whole hierarchical civilization with defacto leaders and a system of moving from space to space as the community sees fit. For example, when I go back to find Billy an hour or so later, Otis, one of the leaders, asks if it's the Billy on the other side of Canal Street's divide. Otis wants to lock the recently installed porta-potties, asking me to get him a lock so he can keep crackheads out of them. When I bring bleach to him to help him clean the toilets, he rounds the containers up after several people grab them. He just needs to tell them to bring them back with one loud shout, explaining the purpose and they are back that quick.

Levester recently moved under the bridge after his mom moved to Mississippi following the destruction of their home in the lower 9th Ward, and then the FEMA trailer they were living in being taken away. When I ask him why he didn't go, the answer is two-fold. One, New Orleans is home and he doesn't see any reason to leave. The second is that he's been searching for a way to leave his mom's house and get out on his own. "I'm a grown man, I can't make her keep me anymore," he says.

The stories are obviously unique, but they have similarities. There are numerous war and military service veterans that can't figure out why they are living the way they do after serving their country. Billy stamped his foot passionately and repeated the mantra, "What did I fight for? What did I fight for? THIS! THis is what I fought for!"

But more than anything, I hear the question asked over and over, why isn't anything being done to help us? I know a lot of people probably think it's not their duty or that homeless people are crazy or brought it on themselves, but it's not the way that it is. When you shake a man's hand, look into his eyes and ask his name, things change. That might sound Pollyanna-ish, but I mean it. When you hear that a storm wiped out all possibilities for a man and his family, when you hear that man ask you for a roll of toilet paper instead of food, when you cry and struggle and sweat out a night of sobriety like one of my friends did with a man named Shawn ... stuff isn't ever going to feel the same.

A good number of people living on the New Orleans streets came form the 9th Ward. Whatever unique things contributed to their ultimate result of living under that bridge or outside the locked gates of Jackson Square or along the Riverwalk, these are largely a people that have had the collective backs of the nation turned on them.

I know that you've seen pictures of the destruction. I know that you've maybe felt bad for the residents of the 9th Ward at some point. And chances are you've made a callous joke, or assumed they got what was coming to them, or maybe you haven't cared much at all. But my impassioned plea is that whether you will go experience the people and the utter destruction yourself (go with me this July when I make my next trip) or you will just donate to a trip and listen to the stories, remember the people of NOLA. I see myself in the eyes of the homeless there. I hear my life story in the tales of those still in FEMA trailers trying to rebuild their homes and lives. It's our responsibility as Americans and responsible citizens to look out for those ruined by Katrina and the lifestorms that have followed. And if you're a Christian like I am ... read the Bible and tell me what our responsibility might be.