Pam Dashiell (pictured) of Holy Cross has a lot to say: about the pace of storm recovery, about social and environmental justice, and about the strength of creating change as a community. And Barack Obama listened.
The junior senator from Illinois was in town Sunday morning, the first of several presidential candidates from either party to arrive for the Katrina Anniversary this week. This was his fourth time in New Orleans since the hurricane. After attending an early-morning service at First Emanuel Baptist Church, he toured a section of Gentilly – where he spoke of creating a national catastrophic insurance pool and directing federal resources to local health care, education and law enforcement agencies.
From there, he went across town to Mary Queen of Viet Nam Church, a fixture in the Vietnamese community of New Orleans East. That’s where he met Pam and 75 other community activists and members of All Congregations Together. During his visit yesterday, Obama said the federal government needs to rebuild New Orleans on a new foundation grounded in strong public infrastructure, including levees that can withstand a 100-year storm:
"Let New Orleans be the place where we strengthen those bonds of trust, where a city rises up on a new foundation that can be broken by no storm. Let New Orleans become the example of what America can do when we come together, not a symbol of what we couldn't do."
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