I have been sickened by how quickly the "entitlement" population of N.O. has turned itself into a jungle society, trampling on the elderly and those who can't defend themselves. I am also sickened by people who should behave better in the news media (CNN, FOX etc.) who spend more time and breath criticizing and second guessing the relief efforts than doing basic information distribution. They (Miles O'Brien is a classic example) roll in in their air conditioned motor homes and satellite trucks and assume that because they got two or three vehicles in that the entire relief effort should be able to do the same. They forget that the storm was over and the trucks were rolling towards N.O. when the levee system failed and the task changed from one of moving support materiel in to one of moving people out. Further, the very road system that would normally permit fast response is under water hindering movement in either direction.
You know, I lived there for 10 years and it was clear that the culture of South Louisiana was one of take and take (natural resources, government handouts, the bounty of the delta) and put nothing back. I remember Ducks Unlimited video of south Louisiana hunters using automatic weapons to slaughter geese in rice paddies at a time when folks in the Prairie Pothole region of the upper mid-west were trying to nurture declining populations of geese before they made their annual migrations south. People from outside the state were appalled; locals shrugged their shoulders and moved on.
St. Tammany Parish (Mandeville, Covington, Slidell) has a large population of folks from outside the state who felt the same way. I have been asked several times whether I miss south Louisiana and to them my answer has been no. I have learned never to say never but it is unlikely that I'd ever go back. I have friends who essentially said the same and believe (like me) that it would be a mistake for our federal government to rebuild NO as it was. Something will have to be rebuilt but why would anyone invest billions of dollars in a hole next to the Gulf of Mexico?
The city's motto is let the good times roll. Don't worry about or plan for the future, don't build a strong education system and certainly don't help yourself. Go ahead and drain more marshes and build more subdivisions at or below sea level. Cut channels directly from the Gulf of Mexico into the heart of the very marshes that buffer the cities from the Gulf which permits salt water incursion to kill the marsh. Don't let the Mississippi River replenish the marshes with silt and natural build-up because it might flood some of those subdivisions that don't belong in a flood plain. Then, when the worst of the inevitable happens, cry, and chant "we need help" and let blowhards like Sharpton and Jackson rave about the injustice of the "system".
Thanks for letting me vent!