By: Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
This year's State of the Union Address by President George W. Bush offered little hope
for the thousands of New Orleanians who fled the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
and never returned and those who did return home. Not a reference to the tragedy that
halved the population and left in the region in ruins was made.
What a difference over one and one-half years make after the president vowed to
restore New Orleans to its former and greater glory in a poignant speech in historic
Jackson Square with much of the city under water and the National Guard patrolling around.
But Capitol Hill Democrats are hardly great saviors of New Orleans. They also failed to
reference Katrina in their response to the president's State of the Union. They put
nothing in their first 100 hours agenda that addressed the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region.
Not until the press and activists noted the glaring absence of Katrina in the two parties'
recent addresses did they begin to do anything. But better late then never, I guess.
Still. How interesting that Senate Democrats would hold a field hearing on the
rebuilding efforts in New Orleans not too long after the hubbub, and that a presidential
candidate would be present. CNN even suggested that the road to the White House in 2008 may very well go though my hometown.
I can only hope and pray that that's not true. And that lawmakers are casting attention to the debacle that is the Katrina recovery
because they want to do something about it
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