"You're one of us now"

[Ms. Yertle]

(snip) It had been a decade since they arrived in Nebraska, a state they had known nothing about until Hurricane Katrina stripped their New Orleans home down to its floorboards on Aug. 29, 2005. They had traveled with their five children to shelters, church basements and an overcrowded motel, where one day a FEMA official announced that a church in Nebraska was offering to sponsor a family and asked whether anyone wanted to go. Nine hours later, they were on their way to the airport, a family of seven with a single carry-on bag and no idea where they were headed. They landed in Omaha, where the streets were wide and quiet; and then they were driven into the surrounding farmland, which started to smell of manure; and then they came into tiny Nebraska City, which at least had a Wal-Mart; and then they continued through 25 more miles of absolute emptiness until they arrived at what looked like nothing more than a junction in the road. One bar. Two gas stations. A main street of vacated shops and a squat municipal building decorated with a freshly painted sign. “Welcome Home Katrina Evacuees!” it read.

The town of Auburn, population 3,200, had provided them with a car, a four-bedroom house, job leads and free medical checkups. The Ladies Club stopped by with homemade casseroles. Goodwill delivered jeans and pearl-snap shirts.

“You’re one of us now,” a city councilman had written to them, even though no one else in Auburn was black, Southern, urban and poor. “We’re a close community that leaves no one behind in a time of need. You’ll be taken care of here.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/08/29/youre-one-of-us-now/

Really, really sad situation. The people of the town had very good intentions, but no real clear idea of how much help this family would need long-term.

The only bright spot is that their daughter is doing very well.

[TwilightGardener]

1. I lived and worked for seven years in that region--rural southeast Nebraska.

Raised my kids in a town of about a thousand people. Auburn is a nice little town, as is Nebraska City. They're decent people out there--as you say, they had good intentions, but there's only so much that can be done to help this family get back on their feet. I don't know if they were victims of pervasive racism over the years (though certainly some occasional incidents), the article doesn't really point to that conclusion, but rather seems to portray a cultural divide or misunderstandings.

[haikugal]

2. In addition to the comments above...

Culture shock, PTSD and axiety/depression...coupled with substance abuse and cancer without adequate healthcare....everything just piles on. I feel for everyone in this article. In such a small community with little to offer young people or adults, really they had good intentions but damn. We really need to do better than this.

I read through the comments on this piece and that's an education in itself. I moved from the bay area in CA to a little berg outside Harrisburg PA in the 80's and I've experienced the culture shock and feeling that I'll never belong...but my son grew up here and he does belong. It's the nature of things in small towns but it can be lonely sometimes. That is less true now that there is the internet but back before the internet it was sometimes overwhelming.

My heart goes out to this family and all the other families that were torn apart by Katrina.

Thanks for posting this.