Making a difference in New Orleans

By Nell Bolton, October 20, 2009 [ECSLA] From the moment the White House announced that President Barack Obama would make his first presidential visit to New Orleans in mid-October, the Episcopal Community Services of Louisiana (ECSLA) team had been looking for ways to influence his itinerary and shape his understanding of the successes, opportunities, and challenges on the ground in post-Katrina Louisiana.

We joined forces with other faith groups and nonprofits to lift up the urgent need for coastal restoration, the imperative of caring for the most vulnerable hurricane victims, and the potential to use ongoing recovery and restoration projects to create jobs and build a local green economy. We even invited the president to visit All Souls Episcopal Church and Community Center in the Lower 9th Ward.

Little did we imagine that ECSLA staff would have a chance to interact with the president in person. Thanks to our good friend and champion Joey Sylvester of All Saints, Chicago, four ECSLA staff and our colleague from Jericho Road, Holly Heine, attended Thursday's Town Hall meeting at the University of New Orleans.

We were not the only Episcopal presence in the arena. Mother Phoebe Roaf of Trinity, New Orleans, gave a beautiful opening prayer to set the tone of the gathering. We heard the president reaffirm Gulf Coast renewal as a priority of his administration. We were encouraged to hear him reiterate his commitment to inter-agency cooperation to address coastal restoration issues and to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles -- such as the failure of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to coordinate effectively -- still hampering the recovery. And we proudly cheered when he praised and thanked all of the volunteers who had worked to rebuild homes and communities.

What was surprising, though, was that we -- the 1,000 or so Louisiana residents attending the meeting -- missed the opportunity to tell the president, in our own words, why our recovery needs to remain a priority of his administration.

Our team was prepared to ask questions, but our waving hands did not catch Obama's attention. Instead, most of the questions from the floor touched on a wide range of other subjects, from education to health care to a green economy. Even this last question focused on recycling rather than on how Louisiana bears the environmental cost of the nation's dependence on our oil and gas industry, or our state's potential to be a hub for clean energy technologies such as wind power or turbines in the mighty Mississippi. One speaker concerned about legal representation for victims of domestic violence did highlight the ripple effects of ongoing recovery needs, which have consumed the attention of most local legal aid clinics.

What a difference it could make, though, for us to speak with one voice about the urgent need for action to save Louisiana's fragile coastline, for us to help the president understand how the response to ongoing Gulf Coast needs can be a model for economic recovery around the country. We will be ready, next time he comes to town, to make certain we are heard when we tell everyone how much his leadership can make the difference.

-- Nell Bolton is executive director of Episcopal Community Services of Louisiana.

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