Locally and nationally, this time of year is one of reflection on the past with an eye toward the promise of the future.
Fifty years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream…” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. While it is difficult to know whether those in attendance knew the historical significance those words would come to possess, in the five intervening decades, that speech has come to symbolize the Civil Rights movement and continues to inspire today those who fight injustice and discrimination.
A little closer to home, tomorrow marks the eighth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s assault on New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. On that day, thousands of lives and the city of New Orleans were changed forever. While its rebirth is an ongoing experiment, life in New Orleans will forever be marked as pre- or post-Katrina.
Here in the River Parishes, we will be marking one year since Hurricane Isaac swept floodwaters into LaPlace and beyond, inundating both homes and businesses. While the piles of debris lining the sides of roads are mostly gone and a large portion of those displaced have since returned, the effects of the storm continue to reverberate throughout the community. Two of St. John Parish’s public schools remain unusable, and many local residents are still dealing with the financial and psychological ramifications of the storm.
But here, too, there is a glimmer of hope. The federal government has finally started to recognize the need for a levee system to protect the area, and small businesses will for years to come reap the benefits of programs that have their roots in the days following Hurricane Isaac.
Tomorrow there will be two events held in LaPlace to mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Isaac. At noon at the St. John Civic Center, the parish will host a commemoration and memorial dedication, and then at 7 p.m. New Wine Christian Fellowship, which served as ground zero for Hurricane Isaac relief efforts, will host an event for the public to come together and remember and celebrate the community.