AOH Into The Breach

Editorial

Estimates are that at least 10,000 are dead in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the harsh reality is that New Orleans will never rise again as the magic and magnificent city that so many Americans loved.

We have seen the other side now, of course. The flood waters that came rushing in over the levees primarily damaged the homes of the poor, those 100,000 or so in New Orleans who live on less than $8,000 a year. For them the storm destroyed what little they had, and their tragic tales have dominated our newspapers and television screens.

It is heartbreaking to see the very young and the old suffer so much. Newborn babies, little kids and the elderly suffering from many serious illnesses have all been caught up in the maelstrom.

They have suffered so much in the aftermath of what will surely turn out to be the greatest natural disaster to ever hit the U.S., bigger even that the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 which left 6,000 dead, or the Galveston, Texas hurricane in 1900 which also left thousands dead.

At a time like this it is deeply upsetting to see that, while so many people rush to help, there are others who seek to explain away their terrible inactivity. For a week now we have seen the various branches of government point fingers at each other for not moving fast enough.

Whether it was failure at local, state and national level, which, indeed, it seems to have been, the time has now passed for recriminations, and instead action is called for. Rebuilding the shattered lives of so many is no easy task.

Yet, the alternative, as briefly suggested by House Speaker Denis Hastert, who stated that bulldozing the city might be preferable to rebuilding, is unthinkable.

It is heartening to note that one of the first organizations into the breach was the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which has a strong presence in the New Orleans area. Indeed, their national convention for 2008 is set for the city.

National President Ned McGinley stated last week that his organization was setting up a special fund to help those left devastated by the hurricane and the flooding. It was precisely the kind of action that major voluntary organizations such as the AOH should take.

By the weekend the AOH gesture was being widely circulated. Prudential announced in a full page advertisement in The New York Times that they were recommending the AOH site as the place to send charitable donations for the victims.

Too often in the past we have all thought of ourselves as hyphenated Americans, whether African, Irish, Italian or otherwise.

The scenes from New Orleans, however, were enough to make us all realize that we share the same country, have the same instinctive empathy towards the victims and must all extend the hand of help at this terrible time of need.

After September 11 in New York we saw the same great response from Americans of every walk of life. A French newspaper stated that “we are all New Yorkers now” in the aftermath of that terrible tragedy.

Today we are all from New Orleans. What has happened to that city has once again reinforced how little control we actually have over such cataclysmic events. If the scenes and photographs from the past week were not enough to convince us of that, then we will never understand.

So congratulations to the AOH, an organization we have seen fit to criticize in the past but which on this occasion strongly deserves credit for moving so fast. McGinley can certainly be congratulated for ensuring that his organization reaches out to the poor and most vulnerable at their greatest hour of need.

You can help too by going to the website at www.AOH.com for information on how to contribute. There will never be a better cause.