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« What Do Dogs Know? | Main | Don't Let Your Town Become Another Verulamium »

August 27, 2006

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Excellent post and I agree completely. Believe me, New Orleans was, and still is, a sacred place to me. And I only experienced it as a visitor many times over the years.

I watched Spike Lee's elegy, When the Levees Broke, recently on HBO and all my righteious anger and profound sadness returned. He lays it out plainly, using the voices of those who suffered and many who still do. A shameful and devastating indictment of a government gone corrupt and uncaring. After all, it wasn't the hurricane itself that brought New Orleans down, it was the levee breaks.

Even though I'm fully aware of how pitiful and cold blooded Bush is, it still shocked me to learn that all the state of the art improvements to the levies were stripped out of the new legislation drafted to correct the problems. The inhumanity continues.

9-11 is sacred to Tim Russert's bosses because they can use it for PR purposes, not because of the people who died.

Was in NOLA the first weekend of June to visit a buddy that attends Tulane.

Chris took me to tour the Lower Ninth. Even tho I had my camera with me, I couldn't take pictures. When Chris asked why, I responded by saying 'This is a sacred place'.

I know what you mean, Kathy.

Both situations could have been prevented. The current administration refused to listen to the outgoing Cinton administration on the danger that was Osama Bin Laden, just as they refused to listen to the warnings of what would happen if a Cat 5 hurricane hit NOLA.

Pointing out blame will not bring back anyone from the dead...I realize that. Pointing out blame WILL/SHOULD/MIGHT lead some of us to realize how the current administration has royally screwed us over so many times.

Our future leaders need to learn from Bushco's mistakes.

Thank you for writing this! I so hoped Mayor Nagin would tell his critics to go jump, or something even more forceful. The deaths on 9/11 were horrible and tragic, but no more so than those caused by Katrina -- or by the government's pitiful response.

Tears sprang to my eyes when I read of how people stranded on their rooftops waved away helicopters, saying they didn't have money for a ticket.

That still makes me cry.

Russert is an asshole. In Frank Rich's column today, he quoted Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge as saying that the inaction in NOLA is the plan. They want a smaller, more controllable city in a redder state.

Ray Nagin has a very careless mouth, which is fine, if he had the spine to go with it. But he always backs down, and in the end, looks like a fool. Which he is. Nagin is a Republican who wants people (other than rich white ones) to believe he is a Democrat. He cannot take a stand on anything, and consequently, cannot lead.

As much as I dislike Nagin, I was disappointed to see him back down to Russert, whom I consider a pox on humanity.

And you'll pleased to know that a memorial is being built in the Lower Ninth.

AMEN...great post, and I agree completely.

Janet

Hey, people, all is well--The Prez has taken full responsibility, y'all, so that's that!

It's a pot/kettle thing to me. Nagin doesn't have much room to talk in my opinion. On the other hand, the damage to the whole of the Gulf Coast is so vast, it will be ten years before they can begin to say it's recovered.

Emotions run high in both areas. I'd love to say Nagin's leadership is lousy (I believe it is), but I can't ignore that the entire infrastructure of New Orleans was destroyed, and that makes it infinitely more difficult to get the initial recovery stages accomplished than the WTC situation. Even the best leadership would be hard-pressed to accomplish what needs to be done, and I've seen nothing but disfunctionality in the Louisiana leadership chain -- Mississippi has managed far better, in my opinion, and that's a more accurate comparison than NYC and WTC.

I admire the people who have worked so hard to get the process started. One step at a time and never giving up will bring positive results.

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