Our world has been forever changed. What remade our world, and our view of it, was born of nature. How we decide to act and how we deal with these changes will determine how the future views us.
We must act in good faith.
Chancellor Sean O’Keefe was right in describing the future as being a “bumpy road.” With the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse both turned into hospitals, a large federal presence on campus and an estimated 1,700 new students entering the University, we are being tried in every facet of what we do. Indeed, our very lives, and how we live them, have been altered in a way unimaginable just two weeks ago.
The challenge before us is immense. A city to the south, perhaps the quintessential southern city, lays in ruin. Many of us had our homes there; many more of us felt at home there. Several other communities now exist in little more than remnants of a dated map, swept up by the Gulf of Mexico or drowned in the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain.
Hundreds of thousands of our southern neighbors are now displaced, relying on the helping hands of both family and strangers.
Already, tensions are high — paranoia is stalking our otherwise neighborly capital city. We must resist our darker impulses and instead reach out to those who need help — not walk to the other side of the street, shutting our eyes to their plight.
New Orleans will rise again. Of this fact there can be no doubt. The road will be tough — and it will be months before rebuilding will make large sections of the city habitable once again. But we have a sacred duty — as students of this University and residents of this state — to lead.
We are the heirs to this broken land, and we will make it proud once more. We will take in our fellow students from their fallen schools and show them hospitality as their colleges are rebuilt. We will do our utmost to help the sick, care for the homeless and work on rebuilding lives.
This is our duty.
Our hour to act is now. Our ancestors who built this state would be ashamed if we did nothing; our grandchildren would never forgive us.
Our moment is now and unavoidable. We will not cease in our duty until the Gulf has receded, New Orleans is once again rebuilt and our new friends able to safely return home.
Let us accept difficulty and move on. Let us take minor inconveniences in stride. We are the flagship University, and we must lead.