Sept. 01, 2005 - 21:16 MST

LIFE INVESTMENT

Cokie and Steven V. Roberts have a column in today's Rocky Mountain News that says a lot to me about many people. In full:

EVEN A HOME IN THE PATH OF A HURRICANE IS STILL HOME

"We're going to rebuild," declared Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour the day after Hurricane Katrina tore through his state, toppling everything in her terrible path."

"We know he's right, because he's talking about our family. Twice before in our lifetimes the family property on the Mississippi Gulf Coast has been completely wiped out, and twice before our relatives have had to start from scratch."

"People who have never lived in a place so special ask why. Why would you subject yourself to devastating disasters in each generation ? The simple answer: Because it's home."

"The historical marker on Highway 90 told only a tiny part of the story of "Boggsdale," the family homestead for well over a hundred years. Cokie's great-grandfather, Robert Boggs, an artist and writer, moved to this serene spot on the waterfront in the late 19th century and raised his children there."

"Some of those children then built houses of their own on what came to be known as "the compound" -- houses that were all blown away in the killer hurricane of 1947, which took the lives of Robert's son and his wife."

"Then the family rebuilt and reconfigured. The hurricane left Cokie's grandparents known as Grandee and Pops, as the only members of the older generation. They would be the ones to occupy the "big house," which they moved back from the beach to protect it from the next storm. They joined forces with one daughter, Claire Morrison, and her husband, Stanley, to construct a rambling clapboard house with a big front porch across a common living room. In a wing on the left, Grandee and Pops guarded their privacy, while in the constantly expanding wing on the right, Claire and Stanley kept producing children of their own and taking in nieces and nephews like Cokie. Another aunt and a couple of uncles put smaller houses on the property as well.

"After Pops died, there wasn't the usual family concern about what his widow would do -- she would be fine, right across the living room from her daughter and son-in-law, whose children -- they had eventually had seven -- were beginning to grow up and move away."

"And Grandee was indeed fine, until Hurricane Camille hit in 1969. The fury of that storm made the strategy of moving a few hundred yards inland seem silly. The houses collapsed into splinters and the trees were ripped up, making this comforting landscape disturbingly unfamiliar. Months of hardship followed, with everyone living in trailers while the debris was cleared and the insurance collected so that the arduous business of rebuilding could begin. Again the family reconfigured."

"When Claire, who had set the welcoming tone even in straitened financial times, celebrated her 90th birthday at Boggsdale last April, hundreds of cousins and colleagues from all over the country came to celebrate at a place filled with memories for each of them."

"Now it is gone. Again. Worse even than after Camille, the cousins report. But we know that they as exhausted as they are, will rebuild, will try to reclaim this special spot in a way that would make their ancestors proud. And the family will gather as we always have, answering the question of why risk it once again, knowing that it's home."

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Of course I know it is impossible for the average Joe and his family to rebuild as Cokie's folks will. Many of the average Joe's rented anyway. It's beyond me to figure out how Mr. Average Joe will ever be able to rebuild his life on his return to the Big Easy, that is, if he has the heart to do so and has help of some kind or another to do so.

From what I read and hear, even the folks who went to the dome as instructed have been without food and water. How long will they be expected to survive like that ? From what I read the rest rooms are sewers now. Of course without water pressure and sewere that can contuct water away from said restrooms, that is to be expected. Whether the folks already being transported to Huston were given food and water I have no way of knowing.

Regardless of what kept those folks in New Orleans, mistaken or not, helpless and unable for one reason or another to get out -- as fellow humans they deserve food, water above all and clean clothes with diapers for the little ones. Some kind of formula for the babies. Doctors Without Borders should send in a team along with medicine. Sanitation engineers should be handling the pollution and disease dangers.

If I were a military man, I would shoot a looter on sight, unless it was food, water and necessary survival edibles he was carrying off, then regardless of rules I think looking the other way would be my thing.

Who was it way back when, in a story, Jon Valjean went to prison for stealing a loaf of bread. Hungry people do hungry things I think.

I do admire those people who will be able and have the heart to rebuild.

Perhaps our government would put out the money to hire the Dutch engineers to come over and pump up sea-bottom and raise the city of New Orleans to a few feet above sea level and then construct sea walls high enough that a hurricane couldn't blow water over it.

But even so, winds as destructive would make matchwood out of many buildings. But without wading through the water it would be easier to clear debris. Easier to keep pumps and power plants running and things like that.

Apparently the money the feds were supposed to be putting into raising the dikes and things like that was diverted ? ? ? to things Iraqi. Wouldn't it be nice to have all our soldiers and machinery back over here to send down and help rebuild the city ? ? ? ?

Cokie and her family have rebuilt a time or two and have made a generational LIFE INVESTMENT . . . . . . . . .

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