From The Editor
Remembering Memorial Day and Katrina
The staff at Tower Publications just returned from a conference in New Orleans for the Association of Free Community Papers. Our production team came home with several awards for their ad designs, and Art Director Hank McAfee walked away with an award in the Design an Ad Contest for his original design of an advertisement. No small feat for Hank and his team since they competed against over 4,000 entries from across the nation. If you like the looks of Senior Times, thank one of the best production teams in the country.
As we attended our workshops at the conference and ventured into the French Quarter for a little drinking and some eating and a whole lot of dancing, we forgot for moments what happened in the city just 19 months before our visit. However, we did not have to venture very far before reminders appeared.
Residents talk about it, gift shops sell books about it and tours take folks down into the Ninth Ward. These tours may seem callous to the outside world, but I can tell you from first hand experience, I felt a wrench in my heart when I saw the aftermath. The editorial track at the conference went on the tour along with an editor from the Times-Picayune newspaper. The bus loaded with reporters and editors — a normally boisterous crowd filled with caffeine and stories — spoke in hushed whispers, but mostly we stared out the windows. Until I saw it I did not understand its impact upon real lives. And that is the reason for the tours — the residents of New Orleans do not want the rest of us to forget but to remember they are still recovering and need tourists to visit to keep the residents who stayed in jobs.
As I prepared for my trip to New Orleans I received an email from a Gainesville church wondering if I would be interested in writing an article on their efforts to assist those in need in New Orleans. Synchronicity played into my hands on that day, giving me a chance to make the story of New Orleans local and also giving me a chance to help keep the memory of Hurricane Katrina alive.
At the end of this month, Memorial Day gives us a chance to formally remember those who lost their lives in defending this country. Albert Isaac writes about one of the Tuskegee Airmen who sacrificed so much during World War II despite the odds against them. Not all of them came home, but we are happy that those who did continue to help us remember the sacrifices of our veterans. Evelyn Kelly interviewed one of the men who helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima. We are honored to carry his story this month because it has just been recently that he has talked about this momentous event.
I wish a very happy Mother’s Day to all of our mothers, living and passed, for without all of them there would be nothing to remember.