NOLA

NOTE: My husband is born and raised New Orleans. The bulk of his family (mom, brother, three sisters, two nephews, in-laws, assorted cousins, etc.) still live there. Or lived there, I guess... Anyway, most of his immediate family decided to stay and "ride it out" They all finally got out of the city yesterday. I am still too angry to write about that. I just pray that my son will not have inherited that stupid, stupid, stupid streak.


Kudos to Mary Landrieau (senator from LA) who at least seems to be on top of a lot of what's going on and was doing a good job of communicating.

As things go from bad to worse, I gotta wonder what the hell is wrong with Nagin - mayor of New Orleans. There was no real plan to get people of the city, there were no plans for what to do with people in the Superdome. Just 'go there' - no water, no food, no plan. This wasn't a surprise. As Fred pointed out, they knew it could happen and since at least Friday or Saturday, they were pretty damn sure it was going to happen.

This in no way is meant to convey any sympathy or excuse for the fucks who are shooting at relief workers, raping their fellow evacuees and holding up medical personnel at gunpoint. These people are going to have a chilling effect on donations to rebuild. I know you're scared, but come on there just is no reason for it.

I heard someone say, 'well, these people have been oppressed for so long...' I say unto them, shut your pie-hole. This kind of crap turns my bleeding heart to stone.

What does make me incredibly angry and sad on tons of different levels is what this is going to do to already sour, sour race relations in that part of the country - hell the whole country. There are white folks acting like violent fools, but you have to look harder to find them, Hispanics and Asians. You mostly see African-Americans. Regardless of how heavily black the city is (close to 90%, I think) I think this will play right into the hands of racists. I know it's not fair that when I act like a complete fuck, nobody says 'oh, see! White women are WORTHLESS!" And it's not fair to say that these guys behavior will reflect on their whole race, but that's how the racists that I know think. I hope I'm wrong.

And there, my friends, are my wholly unsolicited opinions. You're welcome.