An Active Citizen

What is the role of an active citizen in a community during a time of crisis?  In 2005 one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history hit New Orleans, a city six feet below sea level. As the levees broke from the storm and left many homes and businesses under water, nearly 2000 lives were lost, and over $80 billion of property was damaged.

For weeks after Hurricane Katrina, people relied on the government to save them and supply them with the necessities that they no longer could acquire on their own. However, the government was not as helpful as citizens had hoped. Buses arrived days late to bring dying civilians to medical facilities.  Rescue operations were slow due to poor planning. Many locals believed that this was similar to the situation during Hurricane Betsy in 1965, when government resources were used primarily towards saving people in higher income neighborhoods.

Therefore, many residents of New Orleans believed that it was their civic duty to step up and do what they could for each other.  As people tried to escape the flooding, there became a sense of community in many areas throughout the city.  Regular people risked their lives, diving into murky waters to save others that they had ever met before.  The disaster joined people together to work for the good of their neighborhoods and their city.  

Rescuing people from the depths of the floods wasn't the only act people did to make a positive difference.  In my opinion, one of the best demonstrations of an active citizen was when a man chose to give hope to fellow residents that had lost everything they owned by encouraging them with songs.  In the Superdome, this man sang songs of hope amidst the starving and weary people around him.  Soon a massive crowd began following him around the inside and outside of the Superdome singing praises to god.  This made a positive impact on the community by assisting people to psychologically recover from their losses by giving them hope.  

These two examples highlight what is an active citizen's job.  An active citizen doesn't have to be a hero, but just a person who can step up when no one else is there to help.  The men and women who risked their lives saving others did so because there was no one else to volunteer.  The man that sang to give hope to the people around him stepped up because there was no one else to give hope to them. You could call these men and women heroes, but in my opinion, they were just helpful citizens doing their job in a community that mattered to them.