Share the Pain

I thought I should clarify my musings on the potential rebuilding of New Orleans, lest folks think me heartless.

The predominantly black Ninth Ward isn't the only low-lying neighborhood in New Orleans. Turns out that some of those others happen to be where the white folks live.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, all of these high-risk neighborhoods should be demolished, and the residents should be given fair compensation to rebuild elsewhere. But my fear is that only the Ninth will go down forever, while the whiter neighborhoods will be rebuilt. Although the folks living there will eventually be washed out again, that still isn't fair.

I hope the leaders of New Orleans will treat all neighborhoods equally when deciding where and where not to rebuild. Some will definitely have to go. No matter how historic, no matter how close people are tied to those areas, they belong to the waters. To rebuild would be too dangerous, and would only delay the inevitable. Demolishing them would be a tragedy, but letting people move in again only to be drowned in some future flood would be a greater tragedy.