Speeches

Consul General Brian L. Browne
Katrina Relief Speech
"A Time To Help"

Eko Meridien Hotel
September 30, 2005

Good evening. I have always tried to be where something good is happening. Like most people, I confess that I have not always been successful in reaching this goal.

But tonight, I have succeeded. I am in the midst of a fine and august gathering. I am grateful to be here. Thus, permit me to extend my thanks to the organizers of this event. They deserve our appreciation and applause for the hard work and the dedication that have gone into this evening to make it a success. I also want to extend my thanks to all of you for putting aside the normal demands of the day to be here tonight.

I am reminded of a sagacious aunt who once told me "Whenever you see people doing something good. Don't interrupt. Let them finish!" Fortunately for you, her admonition has stuck with me and today I will put it in practice - for what I see before me are good people doing something good. Consequently, I shall not unduly disturb you with a lengthy talk. I shall not take long to say what I have to say.

First and foremost, although I enjoy seeing you, I'd rather that we not be here. I'd rather that tragedies not happen. Yet, they do. The forces of nature are just that -- forces of nature. We cannot control the passage of time nor can we alter where the rain falls nor in what direction and how strong the wind shall blow. None of these elements can we redraw or reshape. Yet when the forces of nature converge with such strength and velocity to cause a humanitarian tragedy, we can control how we respond to that challenge.

What happened with Hurricane Katrina showed that nature knows no boundaries. It is neither a respecter of men nor nations. Rich man, poor man, rich country or poor. All can be affected. And this storm hit the American Gulf Coast like a horde of marauders, destroying and leveling much of what laid there before.

America, my beloved country, so richly endowed with the bounty of nature, suffered this encounter with the opposite side, the destructive forces, of nature. It is times like this that test the souls of men.

During the course of our everyday lives, our thoughts descend and divert from great things and we often let the labels that divide us gain too much prominence in our thoughts and behavior. Ethnicity, nationality, religion, race and the divisions they create often loom too large in the scheme of things.

But when disaster strikes, extraordinary things happen. Those whose physical existence is directly affected by the calamity struggle for survival. Out of this struggle, you find some people who, although suffering, manage to showcase the best of human behavior in their sacrifice and care for others. Conversely, you also see a more benighted side of humanity - those with a wayward proclivity view the situation as a license to promote disorder and crime. The bad apples get instant notoriety and loom large in the public image; but fortunately, the good tend to outnumber the bad and in the long haul, the good prevail over it as well.

Those of us who are not directly in the path of a storm have a less dramatic but also an important choice to make. On one hand, we can harden our hearts and say "What does not affect me, does not concern me." This type of callous indifference may save a person some money in the short run but it is one that ends up robbing them of something far more precious in the end. On the other hand you can say that although this thing did not affect me, it has a profound effect ON me. More accurately, a profound effect IN me!

The cold of heart will say that because America is the richest and most powerful nation, let the American government take care of its own. What a convenient but empty excuse. Truth, America is a resilient nation and the Gulf Coast could perhaps recover without assistance from outside America's borders. But, that misses the point. President Bush said it plainly "In this time of struggle, the American people need to know we're not struggling alone…I want to thank the world community for its prayers and for the offers of assistance that have come from all around the world. The outpouring of compassion and support has been substantial."

The issue is not what government can or cannot do, the real question is what can people do for a fellow human being in need.

Surely this is not a time for mean and narrow answers. When a mass of human beings is struggling, one's heart should remind one's brain that something is wrong. At that moment, a decent person feels the pinge of sympathy yet may not act. But someone genuinely and strongly committed to the betterment of others will feel his or her humanity aroused by the starkness of this challenge.

That person will get out of his chair and open the window: Social class, get out of here! Religious difference, see you later! Ethnicity, good riddance! Racism, I thought I evicted you a long time ago! At such a moment, all of the things that tend to separate us tend to become immaterial.

You then become one human being extending the hand of caring and friendship to the hand of another human being in need due to a tragedy not of his making.

Look, most of you here were not directly affected by the hurricane. Many of you have never been to New Orleans and don't have family or friends there. Yet you consider yourself to be a contributing member of the family of man and all of its positive enterprises. Thus, you are here to lend help to people you don't know and who don't know you.

By being here, you sacrifice by giving. Yet, in the process of giving you add something noble to yourselves. By giving to those in need, you have made yourselves better than you were yesterday. Your spirit does shine and sparkle brighter than it did yesterday.

What you have done is engage in a subtle act of heroism. For a moment, for this night, you have done more than is expected. And in so doing, you have done what you should. You have harvested some of the innate goodness in you. You have shown yourself to be the person you knew was residing inside you, the person you know your God has asked you to be.

This is a good and special feeling. Don't let it be extinguished just because this event, this evening, must come to an end. Now that this feeling has been kindled, continue to feed it, so that it will continue to propel you to other worthy deeds and accomplishments.

You know, we live in hard times and this realization often forces us to be tougher than we would want to be but it furnishes no excuse for heartlessness or indifference.

For I say to you when you extend kindness from one hand, more than what you have given shall be returned to you in the other. When you reach out to help a person in distress you have also touched the very heart of God.

Forgive me for I have interrupted this event long enough. I shall conclude but before I do so let me say again thank you to all of you here tonight, to all the people throughout Nigeria, official and unofficial, who in one way or another have contributed to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. On behalf of the American people, on behalf of the people of New Orleans and all of the victims of the tragedy, I sincerely thank each and every one of you.

Thank you.

# # # #