The joyful start of this new school year comes on the heels of great sorrow and woe, as the disaster of Hurricane Katrina has profoundly touched many members of the Princeton community. Many students from places like New Orleans, Slidell and Pascagoula have escaped with their lives only to lose their homes and their communities.
While time cannot be erased nor things set back to the way they were before, the Princeton community has begun to rally its resources in support of fellow Princetonians and others affected by the storm.
The University is mobilizing to send money to those in need. Relief concerts are being planned, auctions will be held at eating clubs and T-shirts supporting the victims of Katrina will soon adorn students from all five residential colleges. While it remains to be seen how successful these early efforts will be, it is certainly heartening to see students taking action.
While throwing money at a problem is often helpful, it is usually insufficient. Therefore, the University has agreed to temporarily house and educate 25 students from New Orleans area colleges like Tulane. At the same time, groups such as the SVC are organizing trips to the Gulf Coast to assist in aiding and rebuilding devastated areas.
But if the only thing that students take away from these efforts is the importance of helping those struck by disaster, then they will have missed another important lesson: Leaders must take action, not spin empty rhetoric. Only honesty and a willingness to confront problems, rather than run away from them, will improve our countries and our world.
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath lifted the murky shroud that previously covered our country, revealing many of its deepest vulnerabilities. For many Americans, it is only now becoming apparent just how fragile our gasoline economy is. Katrina also exposed the insufficiency of America's apparatus for predicting and responding to disasters.
Many of our nation's leaders have known about these problems and others, yet have taken few steps towards solving them. This failure of leadership is part of what makes Hurricane Katrina as much a human disaster as a natural disaster.
Today's Princetonians will someday become leaders; many will hold positions of great power and even greater responsibility.
We hope that Hurricane Katrina will cause students to pause and ask themselves: What kind of leader will I be?
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