Editor’s Note: The following are texts of speechesdelivered by Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte at the Higher Ground Hurricane Relief benefit concert, an all-star jazz concert Live at Lincoln Center on Sept. 17.:
Danny Glover:
… But the storm not only revealed the poverty of those most vulnerable, those left behind. It also revealed the poverty of skewed priorities that put the shoulder of technology to the wheel of death rather than life, creating killing machines that are now called “smart” and surveillance systems that, in the words of the great Guyanese poet Martin Carter, “are watching you sleep and aiming at your dreams.” Mother Nature revealed the poverty of a mindset that narrowly views security as a military issue; that is blind to the role of culture in sustaining the mental health and social wellness of people, which is also the basis for economic productivity; blind to the role of culture in education, through which we are prepared for our responsibilities in a democracy; and hostile to the role of culture in the search for truth.
Hurricane Katrina revealed, more than anything else, a poverty of imagination.
Harry Belafonte:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “True compassion is more than throwing a coin to a beggar. It demands of our humanity that if we live in a society that produces beggars, we are morally commanded to restructure that society.”
Let us challenge what we have been told was inevitable: Katrina was not “unforeseeable”; the loss of life and suffering was not “unavoidable.” It was the result of a political authority that subcontracts its responsibility to the private sector and abdicates responsibility altogether when it comes to housing, health care, education and even evacuation.
As New Orleans rebuilds, let us also ensure that reconstruction does not result in further victimization. Let us support the efforts of those people in the Delta who have stated that they will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this country to become homeless shadows in countless other cities while federal relief funds are funneled into rebuilding casinos, hotels and chemical plants. Let us ensure that those victimized by this tragedy will be empowered to actively participate in the reclaiming, rebuilding and improvement of their communities.
The gift of music is to bring people together, to create not only a shared identity, but to embrace a shared humanity. To truly know ourselves is to realize how we are connected to each other.
The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
