-
Bits of Blue: A New Orleans Diary
- Dissent
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Volume 53, Number 2, Spring 2006 (whole No. 223)
- pp. 6-8
- 10.1353/dss.2006.0056
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
As our plane circled over New Orleans, I fixed my eyes on the window. I wanted a perspective on the damage below that did not come secondhand from television or the papers. Soon our group from Sarah Lawrence College—a professor, a dean, nine students, and two alumnae—would be landing. It was January 5. We had come for a nine-day stay to work with ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
I expected utter devastation—miles and miles of storm-ravaged homes and communities. Instead, I saw endless bits of blue. I thought that they were swimming pools. Later I found out that what I had seen were blue tarps put on houses to protect them from the wind.