My New Orleans...

I TOOK THIS POST OFF YESTERDAY, AFRAID IT WAS TOO POLITICAL, BUT YA' KNOW WHAT--IT'S MY BLOG, IT'S MY POLITICS, IT'S IMPORTANT TO ME....

HAVE A HAPPY MARDI GRAS!

New Orleans has always spoken to me. I hate to admit that I have only been there one time, long ago, before marraige, children, agoraphobia and pets. I think I had a full New Orleans experience: a tour of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 to see the tomb of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, a ride through the Garden District to see the beautiful mansions of Ann Rice’s Vampire books, a peek at the Superdome, crawfish on a pizza tray, po’ boys and gumbo in a little place on Bourbon St.. A listen to REAL jazz musicians at Preservation Hall, an unforgettable ThanksgivIng dinner at Commanders Palace, breakfast at Brennan’s and accommodations fit for a queen at the famous Sonait House In the French Quarter. I did it once, but I did it right.

Once I was “bit by the bug’ of this one-of-a–kind city I reveled in it. I have secretly dreamed of living there. I have read everything both fiction and non-fiction that I could get my hands on about “The Big Easy”. It was always the one place I would like to go back to if I had a chance.

….and then it was 2005 and my beautiful child’s namesake-Katrina- turned the city into a nightmare….

As a daughter of South Florida I am a survivor of many hurricanes, including Andrew and Wilma. I KNOW that Hurricane Katrina didn’t destroy New Orleans.

When those levees broke, inept and criminal politicians sent a message to the poor of NOLA—

The message?
You don’t count. Go ahead and stand on bridges for days in humidity that will kill, go into the filth and danger of the Superdome and hope you will get back out alive, get on a bus and go to Houston, don’t worry about your pets and the family house that your Great-grandparents built with their own hands in the Lower Ninth Ward. And unspeakably, die on the streets of a major city in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and lay there for days until someone comes for you.

I love my country, I think the United States of America is the greatest democracy on earth and I also believe that an inept and criminal local, state and federal government committed a huge crime in the Crescent City. The United States of America should be ashamed, we all must share a part of that shame, I know I do.

But that city that grabbed my heart and never let go, did just what I expected, they refused to roll over and die, they refused to listen to those that said that the city should not be rebuilt , and they did what they do best, had a party and asked us all to join them.

LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULEZ!

http://www.makeitrightnola.org/
Please go to the "latest news and click on the button with the house on it-heartbreaking.