Newseum and Katrina--A Gulf Coast Point of View--Reflection Week #3

It’s hard to believe we have made it through our third week of classes. It has certainly been an exhilarating adventure.

Seeing the Newseum proved to be one of the most enhancing things I have done since I arrived in DC a month ago. I had been previously; however, on a private tour before it was actually opened. Prior to our visit, I was a bit apprehensive. My prior visit was not as spectacular. The Newseum hadn’t been completed yet and I vaguely remember being unimpressed. However, I must say that my mind was changed completely. Each exhibit had been planned and executed so beautifully that I felt like I was physically there for all of it.

One exhibit in particular resonated deeply with me. Exiting the glass elevator on the sixth floor resembled stepping back in time. Immediately I was home on September 1, 2005. The Gulf Coast still hasn’t been the same after the landfall of Katrina. The Newseum adequately expressed that. An often-unknown story is that of the reporters (many of whom became famous recovering the aftermath of Katrina). Anderson Cooper dedicated the rest of 2005 to covering the recovery of New Orleans. One of the most significant things that I heard Robin Roberts say about Katrina was that it was not a storm that hit New Orleans. Mississippi and Alabama bore the brunt of the storm. People only focus on New Orleans because the aftermath of the storm and poor engineering around the city were the devastating factors. What hit home with me was the fact that I lived through the aftermath of the storm. Granted, I was not in New Orleans or the Eastern Gulf Coast, but Houston felt the reverberations of the aftermath. Two weeks after we began our eighth grade year, Katrina hit. Hoards of people swarmed west along I-10 seeking sanctuary in Houston. To this day tens of thousands of residents of New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama, who found refuge in Houston, have assimilated to become a part of Houston. Considering our reading this week, I saw a quote from The Prince that I found relevant to the situation of that summer of 2005.

“People are by nature inconstant. It is easy to persuade them of something, but it is difficult to stop them from changing their minds.” (20). While this may refer to political action needed to assimilate people into a prince’s society, I see it as an applicable theory to the way fellow Gulf Coast residents assimilated into Houston’s culture. Residents of New Orleans and the affected regions had to convince themselves that they were also a part of us. One of the best gifts Katrina gave Houston was also the insertion of culture given with the surge of refugees. Houston and its residents became a part of something bigger that summer. We all united with the Gulf Coast to help our neighbors. Refugees from Katrina were convinced that they were now a part of Houston, but they also couldn’t change their mind on being a part of the Gulf Coast. That is where Houston had to change its mind. Not only was it the fourth largest metropolitan area, but also it was a part of a culture, a lifestyle, and home to tens of thousands of new residents. Of those tens of thousands, each and every one was considered a part of Houston.