The Road Back from Katrina…
...the Road Forward for America

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August 29 marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As media outlets, political commentators, and everyday Americans refocus briefly on the disaster and its aftermath, it’s an important chance to reopen the discussion of opportunity in America and to promote a positive role for our government in expanding opportunity for all. What follows is a set of recommended themes and messages that can help to build support for those goals. Communicators using these messages should, of course, adapt them to their own voice, audience, and circumstances.

We recommend that communications around the anniversary reflect two core themes:

• Building a safe and prosperous nation in which we all enjoy opportunity means investing in an effective role for government systems.
• Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath show the need for a public effort to achieve our national promise of opportunity for all. Race, wealth, and other aspects of who we are still heavily influence Americans’ life chances in the Gulf Coast region and around the nation.

Our communications should emphasize our country’s shared values, our people’s shared fate, and the shared solutions that can move us forward together. We recommend invoking an Opportunity Frame that is rooted in widely shared positive values. Opportunity means that everyone should have a Fair Chance to achieve his or her full potential. Ensuring that fair chance requires Equal Treatment, economic Security and Mobility, a Voice in decisions that affect us, a Chance to Start Overafter misfortune or missteps, and a sense of Shared Responsibility for each other as fellow human beings. Fulfilling those values is not just good policy; it is part of our fundamental Human Rights—the idea that we all have a right to be treated fairly simply by virtue of our humanity.

Where possible, our messages should: (a) emphasize the values at risk; (b) state the problem; and (c) call for a solution or action:

• Learning from Katrina means recognizing that our fates are linked in this country. The barriers to opportunity for poor people and people of color, which we see in the Gulf, exist in many other parts of America in ways that affect us all. Our government and our people have to work together to rebuild opportunity in our country.
• The road back from Katrina should be the road forward for America. Just as the people of the Gulf Coast are still struggling to reclaim their lives after the flood, millions of Americans around our nation are drowning on dry land—without adequate health care, decent jobs, affordable housing, or quality schools. Just as we have to reinvest in stronger levees and better evacuation plans, we have to reinvest in the systems that keep opportunity strong in our country.
• Opportunity in America means that we all should have a fair chance to start over after misfortune. But that’s not happening on the Gulf Coast, where thousands of people still don’t have safe homes, hospitals, schools, or jobs. It’s time for our government to protect the right of return for all the people of the region—and the right to start over elsewhere for those who choose not to return.
• American opportunity—the idea that we all should have a fair chance to achieve our full potential—depends on an effective role for government, just as it depends on the drive and ingenuity of our people. Our churches, mosques, and synagogues have done their part. The Red Cross has done its part. The people of the region have done their part. It’s time for our government to come forward with an opportunity plan for the Gulf Coast.
• We count on government to keep us safe and to keep the ladder of opportunity sturdy for all of us. Because we haven’t invested in opportunity for everyone, the next Katrina could happen in almost any part of our country today. A hurricane, an earthquake, an outbreak of disease, or a terrorist attack could have the same devastating effects today, with communities of color and the poorest Americans left to fend for themselves. The only way to prevent that from happening is to invest in a government that works to ensure safety and opportunity for everyone.
• Hurricane Katrina showed us that the promise of opportunity is not equally available for everyone in our country. Race, wealth, and other aspects of who we are still make a difference in our life chances on the Gulf Coast and around the nation. But our country’s history shows that we can move forward as a nation by investing in opportunity for everyone.
• How we treat the people of the Gulf Coast is a test of the moral fiber of our nation. The catastrophe in the Gulf Coast, the flawed rescue effort, and the slow and unfair rebuilding process reflect years of disinvestment in the ability of our government to solve problems. People across our country are saying it’s time to turn that around—and they’re right.
• Katrina was a wake-up call for our country, a message that the American promise of opportunity is at risk. Around our country the traditional stepping-stones to opportunity—a safe and affordable home, a decent job at a living wage, a good education, and quality health care—are moving farther out of reach for everyday Americans. And many Americans, including people of color, low-income people, immigrants and others—are facing multiple barriers to opportunity that make it almost impossible to achieve the American Dream. The good news is that we can reinvest now in opportunity for everyone through policies that move us all forward together. 

Communications Principles

TALKING VALUES: Remember to discuss the values that underlie our arguments:

	Opportunity means that everyone deserves a fair chance to achieve his or her full potential. Ensuring that fair chance requires fulfillment of shared national values: Equality: The benefits and burdens of society should not depend on what we look like or where we come from; Security: We should all have the tools to meet our own basic needs and those of our families; Mobility: Where we start out in life should not determine where we end up; Voice: We should all have a say in the decisions that affect us; Redemption: People grow and change over time and deserve a chance to start over when things go wrong; Community: We share responsibility for each other and a linked fate, rising or falling together as a people. Fulfillment of these values is part of our human rights, the idea that all human beings have rights simply by virtue of their humanity.

DOCUMENTING DISCRIMINATION: Most white audiences and many people of color are skeptical about the existence of modern-day discrimination or even inequality. It is important to avoid rhetoric and to provide specific facts documenting discrimination and inequality wherever possible. For example:

African Americans displaced by Katrina have faced racial discrimination in trying to resettle in other parts of the country.

• Nearly two-thirds of African Americans displaced from the Gulf Coast have encountered housing discrimination, according to a study by the National Fair Housing Alliance. In 66% of telephone tests, housing providers favored white callers over African American callers. In three out of five tests in which the subjects applied in person at apartment complexes, housing providers favored whites over African Americans.

Research shows that this pattern is reflected across the nation:

• A 2000 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development study found that whites were favored over similarly qualified African Americans in rental housing 22% of the time. In housing sales, whites received favorable treatment over African Americans in 17% of tests.
• A 2003 study of temporary employment agencies in California found that employment agencies preferred less-qualified white applicants nearly three times as often as African American applicants. Studies in Milwaukee, New York, and other cities show similar results.

African Americans who have returned to the Gulf Coast have also experienced unequal opportunity.

• For example, in one of the most comprehensive studies of post-Katrina conditions, the Advancement Project conducted interviews with more than 700 workers in New Orleans, finding that many African American survivors of the hurricane have been shut out of reconstruction jobs as a result of failed housing policies, discrimination, and a lack of transportation and other services.

Fact sheets documenting racial and other barriers to opportunity on the Gulf Coast and nationally are available at www.opportunityagenda.org/factsheets.

THE FACTS BEHIND GOVERNMENT DISINVESTMENT: Our country’s systematic disinvestment from government’s capacity to solve problems will be hotly contested. Accordingly, it’s important to support this contention with the facts, history, and ramifications of that disinvestment. For example:

FEMA became an example of government strength and support in the mid-1990s:

• In 1994 an executive order elevated FEMA to cabinet-level status. The director of FEMA was responsible for reporting to the president and the National Security Council on matters relating to preparedness and response.
• For the first time an experienced emergency-response administrator, James Lee Witt, was appointed to run the agency.
• Funding for the agency increased compared to the late 1980s, and FEMA responded successfully to a number of major disasters, including Hurricane Fran and the Oklahoma City bombing.

Since 2001, however, the agency’s authority, staffing, and resources have been severely compromised:

• FEMA lost its cabinet-level status and its independence, becoming one of 22 agencies within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
• FEMA lost responsibility for preparedness strategies and its disaster mitigation authority when its Office of Domestic Preparedness and Office of State and Local Government Coordination were combined into one office.
• Federal funding for all disaster preparedness declined and, according to DHS’s Inspector General of Hurricane Katrina Oversight, Matthew Jadacki, a shortage of qualified staff contributed to FEMA being overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina, as well as to a lack of oversight of its efforts.

A POSITIVE ROLE—AND RESPONSIBILITY—FOR GOVERNMENT
Many Americans hold profoundly negative views about the ability of government—especially the federal government—to address social problems. For advocates promoting a just and complete recovery linked to opportunity for all, it is essential to consistently articulate a positive role for government, even as we point out government’s failings. For example:

• Our nation’s greatest leaps forward have always come when we have invested in an effective partnership between government and our people. Think of child immunization programs that have wiped out devastating diseases in our country; our Social Security system that has enabled millions of seniors to move out of poverty; civil-rights laws that help ensure that all Americans can participate in our society; even the interstate highway system, which connected us as a single prosperous nation. Katrina showed us—and keeps on showing us—how badly we need such investment today.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY
Most Americans are unfamiliar with the specific international human-rights documents that govern all nations. But they generally agree that all people hold certain rights simply by virtue of their humanity. And they understand that the United States has a responsibility to its own people and, as a global leader, to protect everyone’s rights. Progressive and activist audiences are especially receptive to human-rights arguments. For example:

• The human rights recognized by the world community, including the United States, include the Right of Return, the principle that all displaced people have a right to a fair rebuilding process. Therefore they have the right to return to school, to work, to their homes and lives. Our elected leaders, like the leaders of every other country in the world, have a responsibility to make that Right of Return a reality.

The U.S. government has established the Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons Policy, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, in order to protect the human rights of people who are displaced as a result of disaster. Advocates for Environmental Human Rights has noted that the U.S. applies that policy in assisting foreign countries, but has not applied it here at home. Holding the U.S. to its own human-rights and humanitarian standards is critical to a right of return for Gulf Coast residents.

HOW DO WE PAY FOR IT?
A predictable question will be how the country will pay for a just reconstruction process and other policies that expand opportunity. It is important to emphasize that these policies are an investment in the prosperity of our nation that will come back to us many times over. While not leading with increased taxes, we should not hesitate to urge a more fair tax system in which everyone contributes his or her fair share to make our country work. Consider the following:

• Expanding opportunity is an investment in the prosperity of our country. In a nation in which we are increasingly interconnected, we can’t afford not to invest in opportunity for all our residents.
• According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, making President Bush’s tax changes permanent would cost our country $2.8 trillion over the next ten years, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates. A proposed repeal of the estate tax that applies to the wealthiest Americans would cost us another $1 trillion. Our nation should instead use those funds to close many of the toughest opportunity gaps that our country is facing. Polls show that Americans support using them to do so.

RISING TOGETHER: Avoiding divisive messages
Emphasizing shared values also means avoiding messages that blame immigrants or other newcomers who have come to the Gulf Coast in search of jobs. Instead we should point to the need for investment in opportunity for all, including Gulf Coast residents. The problems in the Gulf Coast—the unacceptably slow rebuilding process, the lack of job training and economic development, the lack of living wages and workplace protections, and the funneling of contracts to large corporations with little accountability and little local investment—are problems for all of us.

THE POWER OF IMAGES
In the conversation about race, poverty, and opportunity, it will be important to use images strategically and sensitively. We can use images to remind audiences of the stark abandonment and isolation that occurred, and to show how the right response, when and where it happened, made an important difference. It is important, though, to use images in a way that respects the dignity of Katrina’s victims, avoids stereotyping, and complies with privacy and intellectual property rules. Public images can be found at http://www.photolibrary.fema.gov/photolibrary/index.jsp and http://www.flickr.com/groups/45871688@N00/.

To send us your suggestions for improving these messages, as well as your experience using them, please visit www.opportunityagenda.org/feedback