Those we've forgotten

One and a half years ago, there was a hurricane that wiped out neighborhood after neighborhood in New Orleans. Today, the poorest neighborhoods look the same as they did a month after the hurricane.

I went down to volunteer during my spring break and I couldn't believe I was in America (not just because of the unfamiliar accents and the stomach-wrenching food). We have left our poor behind, to drown while wading through the burdens of the American Dream. We leave it to individuals to fulfil their own needs through independence and self-actualizing hard work. Out here in the flood damaged parishes of New Orleans, independence is a crutch we throw them. Independence means loneliness and callous neglect. Help isn't any better, help means bureaucratic red tape and complacency.

But these residents remain hopeful, the human spirit has risen above the failings of the government. It's the churches and the students who are rebuilding New Orleans, through common human compassion.