Under the baobab: Rebuilding after tragedy means coming together in the efforts

Happy 100th birthday President Jimmy Carter, America’s longest living ex-president. Congrats also to Coach James Franklin and the unbeaten No. 7 ranked football team, Coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley and the No. 3 ranked women’s volleyball team, and coach Erica Dambach and the No. 19 ranked women’s soccer team.

In late summer of 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans. It was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history and was responsible for more deaths than any other hurricane. Nearly 1,400 people perished and more than a million people were displaced. I was sharing with students how racially biased some media depicted the victims. I noticed that one of the two or three African Americans, we will call him Mr. Walker, was becoming distressed. I asked him what was bothering him. He told us that he was from New Orleans and that he was unable to reach some of his family members. He didn’t know if they were dead or alive. For the rest of the class time I asked him to tell his story.

Mr. Walker was ultimately able to locate all his family. Like most of the city’s residents they had been displaced. Later that year we went to New Orleans with a busload of PSU volunteers. In the past, if your neighbor’s barn burned down, the community gathered to rebuild it. I stayed in NOLA during the spring semester, helping with the rebuilding efforts. It was awful. The Ninth Ward was the worst. The stench of rotting flesh was a constant reminder that some of the dead had not yet been recovered.

I obtained a residency at LSU and University of New Orleans in order to write a play, “Katrina Sankofa,” based on eyewitness and survivor testimonies. We presented the play at LSU, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, State College and Wellfleet MA, sharing the human perspective of the tragedy.

Recently, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have visited the disaster area of Hurricane Helene, offering federal assistance to both Republican and Democrat governors of the affected states. When your neighbor’s barn burns down ...

Elsewhere in the community

The School of Theatre will premiere “John Proctor is the Villain,” directed by Steve Broadnax at the Pavilion Theatre on Oct. 8; the Blair County NAACP held a “No Hate in Our State” town hall in Altoona to spotlight efforts to resist prejudice; and the Lions Paw held a homecoming brunch for alumni members at the newly renovated Nittany Lion Inn.

The Center for the Performing Arts (CPA) continued the next stage of the Purple Universe workshop under the direction of the Sydnie L. Mosley Dances. In February the completed devised piece will be performed with community members and professional dancers. CPA will also present “Tina, The Tina Turner Musical” on Sunday at Eisenhower Auditorium.

On the local political scene Senator Bob Casey appeared at a fundraiser at Discovery Space, which attracted many supporters. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will be re-appearing at Butler, PA, the scene of the unfortunate assassination attempt. Vice Presidential candidate Tim Waltz spoke in York. These frequent appearances underscore the crucial role that swing state, Pennsylvania, will play in the coming presidential election.

And I believe in the sovereignty of nation states, but the war in the Middle East involves all of us. The war is not coming; it is here. Please stop the killing, release the hostages, repatriate the refugees.

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.” -Elie Weisel

Charles Dumas is a lifetime political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for U.S. Congress in 2012. He was the 2022 Lion’s Paw Awardee and Living Legend honoree of the National Black Theatre Festival. He lives with his partner and wife of 50 years in State College.