New
Orleans Grief
By Dr. Mel Glazer
In a New
York Times article on December 11, 2005,
Clifford J. Levy remarks that "it
has become almost taboo to discuss any
proposal more modest than an immediate
and total rebuilding...Suggest that New
Orleans needs to consider repopulating
only elevated areas, leaving especially
flood-prone ones to lie fallow, and you
will be shouted down."
What a daunting
dilemma: to rebuild the entire city
of New Orleans after
the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina,
including re-imagining what used to be
poor areas
of town so that all who wish to can
move back; or only restoring those higher-elevation
areas which were less damaged and which
have potential for immediate action.
If the first solution is chosen, it
may
take an entire decade, by which time
the poor will have decided to remain
where they are today instead of returning.
If the latter solution is chosen, the
poor will be officially relegated to
non-citizen and unwanted.
I am Grief
Recovery Specialist, we focus on completing
the relationship we have
with whomever or whatever our loss happens
to be, so that we can resume a life of
wholeness and celebration. Uncompleted
relationships weigh us down and paralyze
us from moving on to lives of joy. When
we continue to “hold on to” our
losses, we are unable to live freely.
The dead must be allowed to die so that
the living may be energized to live.
Until the dead are “let go,” they
remain “alive,” and the living
are deadened to life, a reversal of what
ought to be.
Successful
Grief Recovery means giving up the hope
for a different
or better
yesterday. The past has passed; we
have only the present and future to consider.
We cannot continue to live only in
the
past if we expect a future that is
dynamic and appealing.
New Orleans
residents and leadership need to recognize
that
they need not
bring back those dead neighborhoods,
that would be a time-and-money-consuming
proposition that would not be the most
beneficial response to those who used
to live there. Nor would it allow the
City of New Orleans to move forward
to its future with any type of realistic
hope.
Rather,
a more simple, honest and healing response
would be to say
to those who
fled the city: we are so sorry that
we have lost your homes and neighborhoods,
but they will not be rebuilt. We wish
it could have been different, but reality
dictates that we rebuild what is feasible
and say goodbye to the other neighborhoods
of our beloved city. We wish you well
as you continue your new lives wherever
you now live. You are always invited
back, but please know that there will
be no more poor neighborhoods or overcrowded
slums to return to; we will do better
this time so that we can all be proud
of our city.
Perhaps
a communal funeral, complete with down-home
Bourbon Street
wailing,
would be an appropriate send-off. Whatever
the city decides, its future awaits.
Hopefully, New Orleans will be rebuilt
so that the New Bourbon Street will
once again reverberate with flash and
feeling.
Dr.
Mel Glazer • Your Grief Matters
1.877.532-4246 (1.877.LECHAIM)
mel@yourgriefmatters.com •
www.yourgriefmatters.com
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© Dr. Mel Glazer, 2005. All rights reserved.
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