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Skriven 2006-05-31 23:57:24 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0605316) for Wed, 2006 May 31
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Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the National Trust for Historic Preservation's
Conference "Rebirth: People, Places and Culture in New Orleans"
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For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
May 31, 2006

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the National Trust for Historic Preservation's
Conference "Rebirth: People, Places and Culture in New Orleans"
Tulane University
New Orleans, Louisiana



11:35 A.M. CDT

MRS. BUSH: Thank you, Dick, for your kind introduction, and thank you for
your good work as President of the National Trust for Historic
Preservation.

I want to thank the National Trust, Tulane University, Dillard, Xavier,
Loyola, and Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans for sponsoring this
summit. It's such a very, very important summit. It couldn't come at a more
important time for New Orleans and for, frankly, our whole Gulf Coast. So
thank you all very much for sponsoring it.

And I also want to recognize John Nau, the Chairman of the Advisory Council
on Historic Preservation. Thank you for your great work. And of course,
Scott Cohen, the President of Tulane University. Scott's been a huge
advantage for New Orleans since the hurricane. His devotion to Tulane, but
also to the city, is really, really important, and it's made a huge
difference. Seletha Nagin, the wife of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin,
Congratulations, Seletha, to both of you, and thank you very much for
joining us today. I also want to thank the members of Congress and their
spouses and other local officials who are here with us.

I'm delighted to be in New Orleans today with so many dedicated
preservationists. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the National
Historic Preservation Act. This milestone is a perfect opportunity for all
of us to take stock of the strides we've made over the last four decades in
preservation, and then to determine how best to protect America's rich
national heritage into the next century. Today's conference is an important
part of that review. Over the next two days, you'll discuss how a rebuilt
New Orleans can keep alive its unique parades, festivals and celebrations,
how it can preserve its culinary and musical landscapes, and revitalize its
historic neighborhoods.

But the discussions you start here will also determine how businesses and
foundations, educational institutions, governments, and private citizens
can improve our approach to historic preservation throughout the whole
United States. These talks will culminate this fall in the Preserve America
Summit -- which I'll lead here in New Orleans, in partnership with the
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

The summit is a vital part of President Bush's Preserve America Initiative,
which, as Dick Moe said, he announced in 2003 to encourage communities to
preserve our cultural and natural heritage. Preserve America also helps
boost local economies, because historical landmarks attract visitors and
business.

At this fall's Preserve America Summit, experts and scholars will review
our national preservation programs and propose improvements to modernize
them, in keeping with the goals of Preserve America. The summit will also
help communities throughout the United States make their cultural
attractions more accessible to the public and more beneficial to local
economies. And this is especially important here on the Gulf Coast, where
well-preserved and well-presented history can revive local tourism and
speed economic recovery.

Since last summer's hurricanes, I've paid a lot of attention to the
rebuilding of school libraries. Restocked libraries will be at the heart of
reconstructed and restored schools, and we know that schools are vital to
the recovery of the Gulf Coast. Thousands of families who have moved away
from the Gulf Coast after the hurricanes want to come home, but they can't
come home unless there's a school for their children.

During this summit, I urge you to pay attention to our historic school
buildings. As we speak right now, a group including Tulane University,
Teach for America, and three charter schools is beginning to restore
Fortier High School just a few blocks from here. Their work is a great
example of how an act of historic preservation can benefit children, and,
in fact, benefit entire communities.

The preservation dialogue that you start today in New Orleans will continue
throughout the summer and across the country in 11 free summit forums,
hosted by federal agencies and private sector partners. Each meeting will
be co-chaired by respected preservation leaders, and we're privileged that
many of those preservation leaders are with us today.

A central element of the Preserve America Summit will be the restoration of
historic sites devastated by natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
Experts will also determine how we can best protect our cultural treasures
in disaster-prone regions of the country. This is part of why today's
conference is so important to the Preserve America Summit: Many of you have
learned firsthand how to preserve cultural treasures in the aftermath of a
natural disaster, and you've shown you're eager to share this knowledge.

You're helping New Orleanians bring back their famous historic
architecture. Around 20 districts in the New Orleans area appear on the
National Register of Historic Places, covering almost 38,000 structures --
from Creole cottages, to shotgun houses, to stately colonial mansions.

After the hurricanes, residents of these historic districts faced an added
obstacle: retaining engineers, contractors, and architects to rebuild
historic homes according to new regulations. For people who had lost
everything, this obstacle seemed insurmountable -- until the National
Trust, the Preservation Resource Center, and students from Tulane's
architecture school fanned out into the area's historic neighborhoods and
showed residents how homes could be reclaimed, offering expertise, comfort,
and hope.

With the support of our partners in the Preserve America Summit, you're
also helping revive New Orleans' arts and culture. The Getty Foundation
established a $2 million fund to help visual arts organizations rescue
their collections. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded $500,000 in
grants to fund recovery efforts in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama,
Florida, and Texas. In March, the Institute of Museum and Library Services
announced more than $670,000 in grants to help seven museums recover their
collections and re-open them to the public.

And today, I'm happy to announce that the IMLS, the Institute of Museum and
Library Services, is reserving $1.5 million of the grant money it will
award over the next year for projects related to the Gulf Coast and other
regions affected by major disasters.

The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded $1 million in emergency
grants to 39 preservation projects after Hurricane Katrina, helping these
cultural institutions avoid water and mold damage to their collections. The
Endowment has since made another quarter-million dollars available.

And I'm happy to announce that the National Endowment for the Humanities
will award an additional $750,000 in stabilization grants to cultural and
historical institutions along the Gulf Coast. These grants represent a new
phase of the recovery, and will support long-term recovery projects to
house and display rescued collections.

At the same time, the Endowment recognizes that Katrina is now a defining
moment in New Orleans' culture and history. So, with a new $83,000 grant to
the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the NEH will help communities
document their stories of tragedy and triumph in the aftermath of the
hurricane.

With the help of federal partners, businesses, philanthropic foundations,
cultural agencies, and all of you, New Orleans will be reborn as the
vibrant cultural center that it once was. And making sure visitors can
return to New Orleans for its architecture, history, food and jazz will
help your overall recovery effort. More important, your work will also have
a very real impact on the people whose lives are entwined with this city's
culture -- people like Mildred Bennett.

Mildred is 89 years old. She lived in a pink and green shotgun house in the
historic Holy Cross section of the Lower Ninth Ward. Her home was built in
1890 as a wedding present for Mildred's great grandmother, Rose Randall.
Mildred grew up in that house, her children grew up in that house, and her
grandchildren grew up in that house. In 1965, it was their refuge from
Hurricane Betsy, when they were rescued from a rooftop by National Guard
helicopters after the storm flooded the Lower Ninth Ward. Mildred's home
was on higher ground, and it had been spared.

But forty years later, Mildred's home received no mercy from Hurricane
Katrina. The shotgun house that had been home to seven generations of
Mildred's family -- where they had celebrated decades of 4th of July
barbecues, Thanksgivings, and Christmases -- was destroyed by five feet of
floodwater. Mildred's granddaughter, Donna, recalls, and I quote: "Rose
Randall had always said to my grandmother that this house should remain in
the family, that she should never let this house go." But faced with
complete devastation, no flood insurance, and poor health, the family home
appeared beyond rescue.

When Donna first saw the devastation, she cried in the street in front of
Mildred's house. As she wept, Donna was comforted by representatives of the
National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Preservation Resource
Center who were already there helping Mildred's neighbors. Through tears,
Donna told them the story of her family home. The next day, she said, "they
asked if they could take it on as a project."

Now, with the help of the National Trust, the Preservation Resource Center,
Tulane architecture students, community organizations, and neighborhood
volunteers, Mildred's home is being rebuilt. The old shotgun house is also
being improved, upgraded with a ramp to accommodate Mildred's wheelchair,
and protected against future storms. Along the way, the Resource Center has
helped rescue Mildred's priceless family treasures: antique furniture,
World War II-era records belonging to her jazz-pianist brother, even
Mildred's diary.

When Mildred sees her home restored and improved for the first time next
month, Donna says she knows her grandmother's tears will be tears of joy.
The house has become a symbol of hope for the entire neighborhood. When
volunteers come to work on Mildred's home, Donna says, "then people go next
door to help the neighbors. They're spreading the confidence, this belief
that the neighborhood can come back, and that it can be revived." Mildred
is right here on the front row. (Applause.) And Donna, her granddaughter,
and another granddaughter. (Applause.)

Through your work, all of you -- your hard work to preserve New Orleans'
history and culture, you are spreading the belief that this city can come
back. Thank you very much for your commitment to New Orleans and to the
Gulf Coast, and to preservation throughout the United States. I'm looking
forward to the great contributions your work here will make to the summit
in October, and to historic preservation throughout the United States.
Thank you all very, very much. (Applause.)

END 11:49 A.M. CDT
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