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If I Screamed It, Would You Hear Me?
From our own Christy Cole:
Not too long ago I wrote an article entitled 'Preaching to the Choir.' in which I discussed the political abandonment of the deep south. When I wrote it, I was blissfully unaware of exactly how right I was. Or how it would bring death so close in plentiful amounts.
As a resident of Louisiana I would like to tell you about what you have lost. I would like you to see it, as I saw it.
New Orleans. Or, as they say if you’re from here, "Nuuuw 'Awwwlins'. So famous, most think her our capital city. Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana, but New Orleans was our crown jewel. World wide she was known for her parties, her history, her engineering feats, her defiance of nature itself. And on top of it all was a culture unlike any place on earth. A place where history is beloved and alive.
So very, very ALIVE.
Like most Americans I have never had a vacation, but I did find myself once in New Orleans. It changed my heart, from the first moment I saw it. The skyline in itself was not terribly distinctive but quaint in certain ways. Most of Louisiana is so lush the horizons are usually shortened and blunted by it. Not so there in that coastal city. But since it was under sea level you had the bizarre feeling of having to glance upwards to find the horizon. It is actually a visual oddity you had to adjust to. You get a sense of the true power of man and nature colliding. And man winning.
The rich historical homes and streets of the Garden District were the most pleasurable sight on earth. Louisiana architecture is as unique as the rest of her and those fine homes were so beautiful I found myself day dreaming of the people that must live and work in them. I thought of the history they had witnessed. I also went into the workers' districts, and houses so bright and cheerful also made me dream of those people as well in vibrant colors. I saw poetry in their anonymous, friendly faces. Even the cemeteries are world famous and as gorgeous as you ever hope to find death.
New Orleans, a place so beautiful even the cemeteries are lovely.
Quite unexpectedly I wound up in the French Quarter at nine am on a day so clear it was a true honor to be alive. Even though I’m not a drinker, and even though it was VERY early, I decided to get drunk. It took all of one strong drink at Pat O'Briens. I drank my very first Long Island Iced Tea there. What a blast. The historical scenes of 'Interview with a Vampire' with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, they filmed from right there in that historic building. Being giddy with whatever the hell they put in those 'Teas' I stood not just where stars like Cruise and Pitt stood, but I stood in a place where much history had unfolded.
In all of Louisiana two very separate histories exist... In New Orleans, those two histories actually became one. What a sight it was to behold. Caribbean, French, African, English, Indian, Roman, Yankee, Dutch, German, Cajun and ALL American through and through.
I believed they called it 'The Big Easy' because it was so effortless to fall in love with her and her people.
I had my one tea bender and went wandering in the streets where a homeless man in a full king’s costume, crown and all, rushed across the street and proposed marriage to me on the spot. He actually quoted Shakespeare while asking. (Alas, I declined...although the classic verses were fantastic.) Before a spectacle could arise I went on further into the heart of New Orleans.
I passed art shops, museums, and five star restaurants. I found voodoo shops, cathedrals, and gentle courtyards. And constantly as I walked I heard music. Jazz spilled into the streets like flowers blooming from one block to another. I found transvestite strip clubs, and out of nowhere a mini parade almost ran me down. I found one of the seven death masks of Napoleon and the very same table and chair that General Hickory used when planning a final humiliation for the bloody British. So what if the war was actually already over. We didn't know it.
Legend has it, Hickory used alligators for cannons when the real ones melted. A very inventive use for a reptile, I must say.
And everywhere you went, there were the people who are also like no others on earth. They are the bearers of the weight of the two histories. And in truth, without them, it would have been just a place.
The people of New Orleans ARE the music. They ARE the history. They ARE the food, the flavor, the variety of what they built for us all. They are what is most special about a bunch of buildings on the coast. As long as we have them, we have the soul of New Orleans living and breathing amongst us.
They are the soul of what is now a ghost.
And they were left behind to die. There is simply no other way to put it.
My nation has shamed me before. When I think of all the innocent Iraqis that died for lies, I weep bitter angry tears. I have stepped up and lent my voice to those screaming STOP IT STOP IT. But things have changed now. Talking has run its course. I am no longer in possession of the hope it would take to dare believe it would make a difference. Shame is overshadowed by rage. Rage like the ocean that is overcoming one of Americas most beloved cities.
I tried, I tried so hard to get people’s attention on the south politically. Many did respond, because I think people not from here have an inherent curiosity about the deep south. Many did respond in thoughtful debate and inclusion. In some cases I admit I FORCED the conversation in people’s faces. I had to. I always sensed I was running out of time.
I scolded, I taunted. I told them they had abandoned us. Some of them resented it very much. Who was a southerner to dare question the way things are or could be...? I stood in troubled shock as I heard people say the most awful things about us as a people. I saw and heard it said we were not even people, much less humans who deserved mercy. I only very recently realized why the resentment ran so deep.
It was not because we are rude or ignorant that you forgot us. It was not because we love guns, God or fat sheriffs. No, it is not any of that.
You turned away from us politically because you did not want to see yourselves reflected in our eyes. You wanted to believe you were above history. Looking hard at us reflected back a hypocrisy so bright it was like the sun, and you had to turn away or be blinded by the sorrow of unfufilled promise.
Our broken dreams were your unwanted legacy. You forced yourself to believe we no longer dreamed at all.
When we invaded Iraq we gave them 'fair' elections. The Yankees gave us those same 'fair' elections and the south has been a rigged game for over 100 years. You wanted to believe it was 'down there', not 'right here' affecting you. You saw it coming everytime you glanced this way. 'Down there' became someplace REMOVED from you. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
And then God Himself unleashed the storm we have all feared. The winds of time changes everything.
I have heard some strange reasons why people think God hit Louisiana with Katrina. I personally am afraid in my heart, it is the reckoning for 100 years of voter fraud. Had the will of the people been done, those levees would have held. Those levees were an engineering marvel. The Pride of New Orleans. Literally. The people who are New Orleans would not have let their pride falter. Their lives depended on it. Literally.
Had the will of the nation backed them up, the levees would not have been abandoned as surely as her people were. Literally left to die in the very heart of America.
In my memory New Orleans will always be a bright, shining city by the sea. A city whose people defied the ocean every damn day. This one time they lost. After all that is what happens to people abandoned, they become lost. The ones who preyed upon the vulnerabilities of those wandering the streets of New Orleans, should AT LEAST be dealt with as harshly as the looters.
Do not let them twist history. New Orleans survived Katrina. She SURVIVED that nasty bitch. It was the levees breaking that has left people living like animals and dying on the streets. Those levees were not an act of God. They were an act of man.
One million people are homeless. SOMEONE is to blame for this.
SOMEONE WILL take the blame. We will FORCE FEED IT to them if need be. This will not stand. There is only so much decent people can take. And from now on when the hurricane victims who are overrunning my town ask me, 'Where can I go?', I am going to tell them to go sleep in the only other home I own with plenty of free space: The White House. God as my witness, one way or another, it will become a useful structure again. And you can bet your whole empire that the victims of Katrina will not abandon it to apathy. They need it to shelter their hungry children.
Unlike current residents they would actually be GRATEFUL to be there.
I think the White House idea is right on the mark.
My friend Janet has turned up in Houston, my cousin is also there, his sister is in Baton Rouge, and my colleague Susan, a dance therapist, who apparently lost her house in NOLA, is volunteering to help people in Covington. Maybe Indy will meet up with her...
Ira--we will send the boxes (we now have five!) to the Salvation Army in Houston--that seems ideal. May send a few small immediate things to you directly.
Maxine Waters story:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090405Y.shtml
Kanye West (just bought his CD):
NBC Deletes Rap Star's Remarks on Telethon
Kanye West's impromptu attack on President Bush during a live telecast Friday prompted NBC to delete his remark in its West Coast broadcast of the benefit for hurricane victims.
"George Bush doesn't care about black people," West said. The rap star also criticized coverage of the catastrophe. "I hate the way they portray us in the media," West said. "If you see a black family, itsays they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."
West's remarks aired unedited in NBC's East Coast and Midwestern markets, and also on the simulcast versions for MSNBC, CNBC and Pax. However, the
network turned off his microphone and switched to another performer shortly after he mentioned Bush.
The criticism of the president was deleted from the version that appeared on the West Coast three hours later on tape delay. West Coast viewers did, however, hear West's criticisms of the media and the pace of the relief. NBC officials said the network made the decision to cut the Bush remark because of a desire not to politicize the concert and possibly dissuade
viewers from donating.
The benefit "was a live television event wrought with emotion," said NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks. "Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him and in no way represents the views of the networks. It would be most unfortunate if the efforts of the artists who participated and the millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person's personal opinion."
During the middle of the telethon, West was paired with actor Mike Myers, who began with prepared remarks. Myers appeared surprised after West began criticizing the media's portrayal of blacks and the pace of rescue and relief efforts.
Myers waited for West to finish and then spoke again, sticking to the script. After a short pause, West said: "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Within minutes, MSNBC President Rick Kaplan, who produced the telethon at Rockefeller Plaza in New York, had cameras cut to actor Chris Tucker, who was on a different part of the stage and who appeared to be looking at something off camera. Viewers could hear West's voice trailing away as his audio was switched off and Tucker began reading from prepared remarks.
Although the event was aired with a brief time delay so technicians could edit out profanity, it took a few minutes for producers to realize that
West had strayed from the script. At the end of the program, host Matt Lauer of NBC's "Today" referred to the high level of emotion surrounding the hurricane's aftermath. He did not address West's remarks directly. Officials did not have a final tally of the money raised, but Marks said she thought it was a "very substantial" amount.
Even Celine Dion (from DU, which explains all the little dots):
last night on CNN?
...she couldn't stop crying while talking to Larry King....and she was pissed at the Bushco operation.......this is pretty close to verbatim: 'How can you send planes halfwayaround the world to kill everybody when you can't send helicopters to rescue families stranded on their roofs?... Children are being raped!' andshe went on and on...Old Larry tried to comfort her but he wasn't doingvery well....her emotional outburst seemed entirely appropriate...I take back every mean
thing I ever said about her...
(Michael Myers is Canadian too, eh?)
Christy,
This whole country, not only the South, is on thin ice.
My friend Cris from work (originally from Texas) just found her cousin, who had been taken from Rue Royale, New Orleans, French Quarter to Corpus Cristi Texas and now will stay in this area for 3 months. He's 77 and a vet and needs to get his meds from VA hospital. We offered to help with transportation etc.
Christy... thank you for your voice.
Christy - you're an amazing soul. Thank you.
One of my favorite Bible verses from the Old Testament book of Hosea 8:7
"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: . . ." (KJV)
Great article, Christy. Yes, SOMEONE is to blame for this unpreparedness.
Did anyone catch the President of Jefferson Parish's emotional statement's interview on Meet the Press a few minutes ago crying about his Director's mom being lied to for 5 days by FEMMA in a N.O. Nursing Home and eventually drowning.
Casey is there any way we can the video of that emotional statement here and Mary Landreu's helicopter statment and video showing that One Lone Crane Operator fixing the 17th street levee breach?
Casey is there any way we can stream that video of that emotional statement by the Jefferson Cty President and Mary Landreu?
Great ability to make things come alive, as usual, Christy!
I woke up in the middle of the night from a dream that I was in the middle of St. Mark's Square, Venice. It was flooding but there was kind of a bizarre game show going on, kind of a life-sized chess match. The "pieces" were dressed in the style (hair, clothing) of Mozart and the "players" were to guess what style of "jazz" each represented (only the music was kind of baroque classical) and identify how "deep" (as in feet below sea level), in order to win. It made sense in the dream, kind of like Alice in Wonderland.
I think it's because I've read Anne Rice's historical novel about castratis in Italy four times, and had just read her piece about New Orleans.
I've also been having flashbacks to my two trips to New Orleans, both of which were to American Speech & Hearing Convention. I too was stuck in the Convention for 4 days, but under better circumstances, as my task was to listen to boring lectures in order to get Continuing Education credits. (They're boring because people only make the presentations so they will get to come to New Orleans).
I am thinking of Elyssian Fields (their Champs Elysses), Faubourg Marigny (the "gay" district), Jackson Square with the churches and magicians, the vampires at the end of Bourbon street, the cemeteries, the marshmallow-eating alligators and much more.
A benefit hip hop concert is being organized here in Seattle & I hope similar things are happening all over the country.
& I know that if Mt. Rainier were to explode today (as Mt. St. Helens did 24 years ago) or we had a strong earthquake, we couldn't depend on FEMA or the national guard here either.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Link to Jefferson Parish President's interview.
Ira, Casey
A friend says there was a podcast with Meet the Prses from last week so maybe there will be again. Would that be on their website. Alternately, someone will probably make an mp3 of it, as they did with the NOLA mayor's speech.
I swear anything worth seeing ends up on the internet.
On Call
Whoa! Thanks! Off to review/disseminate.
Here's a link to the "Meet the Press" transcript where Tim Russert interviewed Aaron Broussard. His interview comes after Tim's interview with Chertoff...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/
here's the money quote part during which Mr. Broussard broke down in tears...
MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.
Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.
But I want to thank Governor Blanco for all she's done and all her leadership. She sent in the National Guard. I just repaired a breach on my side of the 17th Street canal that the secretary didn't foresee, a 300-foot breach. I just completed it yesterday with convoys of National Guard and local parish workers and levee board people. It took us two and a half days working 24/7. I just closed it.
MR. RUSSERT: All right.
MR. BROUSSARD: I'm telling you most importantly I want to thank my public employees...
MR. RUSSERT: All right.
MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...
MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.
TO WATCH THE VIDEO...
go to this link
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/
go to the box in the center column labeled Free Video: Meet the Press,
there are 10 video clips available
click on the right arrow button till you hit 3/10
click on Launch to see the video of the interview
Another dkos poster has caught an unbelievable statement made by Chertoff this morning and created a poster out of it...
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/9/3/223150/1013/117#117
Simply unbelievable...
Glad this is getting airplay.
Several of us have been searching for media accounts of all the help we are getting, including troops, from other countries such as France. There is nothing that we can find in our media, despite the fact that foreign media have shown supplies and personnel getting ready to leave.
Is our administration ashamed of being unable to handle their responsibility?
Bingo!
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/04/katrina.world.aid/
Government won't tell the press whether the offers of aid have been accepted. Well they obviously have or why would foreign media show aid being packed up to go to US?!
I read quickly but did not see mention of the 17,000 troops.
Actually that's not true DiAnne. I saw part of a press conference with Condi yesterday where she was listing some of the offers that the US had received and that we are accepting. Don't recall which TV channel as I was flipping back and forth but it was on yesterday afternoon.
Ira and dwahzon,
Yes, the president of Jefferson Parish is must see video. I hope you can find a link to a video feed.
First his explaining who prevented anyone locallay from trying to prepare for relief efforts and to implement them, FEMA!
Then his final story, which he can barely get through due to his uncontrollable sobbing, is beyond words.
The video of his segment should be repeatedly played on every network station and cable outlet.
So with the military arriving/taking over in NO, who thinks they will they stop the media from reporting the truth... How long before we start hearing "We're making progress...we're providing freedom to the people of NO..."
Posted by: dwahzon at September 4, 2005 02:19 PM
Yeah, I heard the Bush admin, after continually refusing all offers of foreign help(they wanted to let the moronic Bush followers keep bashing foreigners for not offering the US any help with the disaster,) finally relented a day or 2 ago and agreed to accept some offers.
mgno.com, a guy named Michael Barrett is reportedly up and running an active blog site from the 10th floor of a N.O. office building via generator, but just told CNBC the evacuation problems are not politicians fault. Sounds like a possible Republican apologist but I will withhold judgment out of respect for New Orleanians.
The links to the transcript and video for Tim Russert's interview with Broussard are above in my post at 2:07 pm
Ira, the blog he's running is called the Interdictor and what he said was forget talking about the politicians...
I've included the link before on previous thread... he and his colleagues are heroes in my book... regardless of their political outlook.
If you scroll down to his posts from earlier in the week, they are just unbelievable.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/
Oops. Thanks for putting up links to the videos on crooksandliars and the transcripts.
Everyone and I mean EVERYONE in this county must watch the videos they put up
Something amazing...
CNN just played the Aaron Broussard segment from Meet the Press. The CNN reporter doing this part said he's been out in that parish and that the people there feel like they've been completely abandoned.
A dkos poster has posted an email from a friend who's been working as a relief worker at the Cajundome in Lafayette, LA. In particular s/he talks about the massive lengthy interuption Laura Bush's visit yesterday caused.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/4/124532/7736
you are exactly right about dwhazon, about Interdictor they are some brave dudes who deserve our respect. their stories are fascinating and should be the stuff that makes up a doumentary film. apparently they don't want anything to do with politics, they don't trust any politician and don't want to be involved in any sort of political recriminations. they report MCI trying to get some kind of communications operations up and running in N.O. which is encouraging. we should pray for their safety and well being as they truly are putting their lives at risk and are American heros for the newest blog generation.
Posted by: DavefromPrinceton at September 4, 2005 02:37 PM
I agree, Dave. The Landrieu clip isn't quite all of the entire segment which I saw this morning, but it got most of it (thankfully, minus the neoCon spin comment immediately afterward quoted by Stephanopolous).
I wasn't able to get the Broussard video to come up, but have read the transcript.... which made me cry just reading it.
I've sent the crooks and liars link to my email list, added the cnn link listing the foreign countries who have offered aid, and a link to the transcript of the show that has Broussard on it.
Letters and letters and letters to write to newspapers and politicians.... Uff da! All my multi-tasking skills must be utilized in the next week!
Christy: Brilliant piece of writing (it fostered another round of tears for me), and I hope you seek to have it published elsewhere, too....
For now, I must stop the tears, let my rage crystalize down to mere anger so I can write coherently to those bastards in government and letters to editors.... a constructive use of the anger part of grief....
Dwahzon
I'm glad the aid is coming.
300 US Airmen to Return from Iraq, Afghanistan
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=9640
with comments
if I hear Chertoff get on tv one more time and blame the victims for not getting out of town before the hurricane, I am going to scream. What a moron.
As we walked along the streets of Capitol Hill today, there is one topic--the failures of the Bush administration this past week.
There are jars out everywhere for relief money, of course, and many concerts planned. There's a civil action every day, it seems.
But since national politics is THE local industry, of course, the discussion about what might befall the Bush regime in the days to come is as personal here as it is peripheral to those suffering down south.
Politics affects jobs here, after all.
People are not gleeful about the failings of this administration; they are angry. Especially those on the national scene who have family in the areas hit, the rage is palpable.
Chertoff and Brown are not coming off well in all of this, meaning there may be job openings in both FEMA and DHS soon...
But mostly, there are folks shaking their heads, wondering how we can help; what we might do to ease the pain of those failings.
Any thoughts?
I haven't seen this one posted here yet...(I hope I looked carefully enough; sorry if I missed it.)
'My Pet Goat' -- The Sequel
By Greg Mitchell at Editor & Publisher
This time, during a catastrophe, the president did not merely dither for seven minutes, but for three days, and his top advisors followed suit. While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall failure of leadership in this weeks hurricane's disaster, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty.
(September 03, 2005) -- While a rising chorus in the press has taken the White House, FEMA and the Pentagon to task for performing miserably in their response to the human disaster on the Gulf Coast, few have focused on the most telling aspect of the entire failure. It’s not just incompetence. It’s a shameful lack of concern: The 9/11 “My Pet Goat” dithering on an administration-wide scale.
--snip--
Simply stated, the president and his top advisers chose vacation over action.
While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall deadly failure of leadership, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty.
President Bush, in his weekly radio address on Saturday, said: “In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need.” But Bush, and his top aides, quite frankly, did just that.
--snip--
While the 9/11 “My Pet Goat” episode was certainly illuminating, it’s not certain what might have worked out better that day had the president dropped the book and taken action. But his failure to grab the reins in the hurricane catastrophe for three days this week probably doomed hundreds, or more, to death.
This is not mere incompetence, but dereliction of duty. The press should call it by its proper name.
http://tinyurl.com/8aprk
But mostly, there are folks shaking their heads, wondering how we can help; what we might do to ease the pain of those failings.
Any thoughts?
Posted by: karen at September 4, 2005 05:06 PM
Karen, if you mean ease the pain within ourselves & others that our current government & regime has inflicted by once again proving to be an utter failure at everything it does, here's a brain dump of my suggestions. (Remember: you get what you pay for with free suggestions...)
- Get angry. Stay angry.
- Channel that angry towards letting Congress, the media, local officials how angry we are and how we want & expect leadership.
- Connect within your local community to find out what's going on for any upcoming elections -- even if they're school board elections -- and get involved. Stay involved.
- Find out where you can get trained to register people to vote and get that training for the '06 Congressional elections.
- Find out what it takes to be a poll watcher in your district/state and become one. Get others involved so that Ohio & Florida never happen again.
- If your state uses Diebold voting machines (or any other machine that can be rigged), petition now to either get other voting machines or get a a a paper trail & verifiable proof of votes. Hell, if we can get a receipt for buying gas, we can get a receipt for voting. (Of course, that is assuming anyone can afford gas anymore...)
- Find out who's running in your district for Congress. Get to know the candidates. Attend local meetings.
- Let everyone you know (and anyone who will listen) how you feel about issues, where to find the truth behind the issues & the candidates.
Brain empty for now. Will recharge & post again. Of course, please feel free to shoot me down or ignore me...
And true to form, just as I post something, we get a new thread...
Good suggestions. Registering voters and being a poll watcher are both things where the training (at least here0 is minimal and they are looking for people. We have an election coming up in a week & voter registration was going on bigtime during a 4 day music & cultural festival we have going on. Meanwhile, we have local candidates (city council, Mayor) for this election, and then our Senator already has her campaign going for 2006 and is accepting volunteers. We aren't taking our "purple" status for granted.
Q: What's the difference between Baghdad and New Orleans?
A: The Louisiana National Guard is protecting Baghdad.
BTW, I think the theme for those who want to win in the '06 election is PROVIDING REAL LEADERSHIP and be able to prove it...
No more lies.
No more lives.
Think it's been quiet in Iraq?
Funerals for hundreds & Kirkuk pipeline explosion completely halted oil production.
http://www.forbes.com/finance/feeds/afx/2005/09/04/afx2205566.html
Madame Defarge
& the old fashioned Throw The Bums Out - no one wants their tax money squandered by incompetent thugs.
Thank you guys
Sorry im late gettng back been really..surreal here
Christy,
Amazing peice!
Mr. President!
We the people...
Submit Your open letter to Bush.
http://www.mwcnews.net/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1231
Christy, I really enjoyed reading your post.
I've never been to New Orleans. It's always been an American city I've wanted to experience. And, now it's gone.
One of my all time favorite books is "A Confederacy of Dunces."
Is New Orleans really gone? Can it be restored?
September 05, 2005
Associated Press reports that at least five people shot dead by police as they walked across a New Orleans bridge yesterday were contractors working for the US Defence department.
A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal. The contractors were on their way across the bridge to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain, in an operation to fix the 17th Street Canal, according to the spokesman.
The shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, across a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River.
Early on Sunday, Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley of New Orleans said police shot at eight people, killing five or six.
No other details were immediately available.
Link Here
I think New Orleans can be pumped dry...
But can she be restored...?
In my heart I do not think so. I pray I am wrong.
Christy's article is beautifully written and it evokes a city that was more than the buildings and a people who have survived countless hazards. The truth is that New Orleans may be pumped dry and some can be restored but as Christy said, the people of New Orleans was it's legacy and so many of the evacuees have already stated that they are never going back. The kind of trauma they endured has left them afraid on an elemental level to ever be in such a vulnerable setting again. If someone has ever broken into your home and stolen and brutalized you then you understand the fear. Before you were blissfully naive about your safety and afterwards you never again felt safe. The New Orleans that existed before will never be quite the same no matter how much is rebuilt because they will never again have the spirit of "Laissez bon temps roullez" (Let the good times roll!) .