Cape Karen
The powers that be, from government officials and government contractors, to what Chris Matthews (Hardball, MSNBC) calls the "movers and shakers" from the local business communities in New Orleans, are putting their heads and pocketbooks together, and will begin the laborious, trillions-of-tax-payer-dollars, task of rebuilding the devastated N.O. Gulf Basin area.
(Gee- that says it, doesn't it? No Gulf Basin.)
Of course they will start by rebuilding the money-producing French Quarter business district because, they say, it will bring in all that fabulous tourist money. They are even planning to celebrate and have Mardi Gras there this coming year!
O' boy! I wanna go, I wanna go!
(Oh, shucks, I can't go . . . I'm allergic to mold.)
The thousands of locals, as we've seen, were mostly below poverty-level black families. They have been left without even a humble shanty-town to live in, and they will be pushed far, far away from the media spotlight. . . unless we bring them back.
Without our attentiveness and concern, those po' folks will still be living in some far-away-from-home location, still sleeping on hard canvas cots, still eating crappy meals out of aluminum-foil plates, and still using plastic utensils.
Instead of being given the jobs they want and need, and recruited to help rebuild their own communities, they will be left adrift on a sea of bureaucracy to continue living like nomads; unless, that is, we ordinary folks start screaming and yelling on their behalf, "HELP! HELP!" like they did at the Civic Center.
But, maybe, just maybe, our cries won't also fall on the deaf ears of those with clay feet.
You can bet your bottom dollar that all the best-paying available jobs will go right into the political good-old-boy network for disbursement, if we all remain silent and just allow it to happen.
In 1933, then President Franklin D. Roosevelt, created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to employ nearly 3 million unemployed Americans who needed both work and an income. In just 37 days, President Roosevelt was able to make the idea of a CCC a reality. He did this by mobilizing a civilian peacetime army to address our nation's needs at the time of the Great Depression.
Can you picture the Bush-whacker doing that, today? Ironically, he is much too wrapped-up in his storm-ravaged public image and his falling poll ratings, and way too busy staging photo-ops, to even consider taking the time to create such a humanitarian-based movement. In the months ahead, as billions of our US tax dollars flood the Big Easy, earmarked for rebuilding, President Bush will be loudly rallying the cause and pronouncing over and over again: "We shall prevail!"
Meanwhile, the former life-long residents of New Orleans, who are the very essence of New Orleans, could end up being all but forgotten as the political merry-go-round spins and whirls around and around, over their heads. 
Then, picture this: one or two years into the rebuilding process, with all the Big Pockets full to overflowing and heavily lined with graft and corruption - suddenly the Gulf area gets hit once again with another massive hurricane. (Global warming isn't going to just go away.)
That's right; a 2007 hurricane, named "George," comes along and completely destroys everything that has been rebuilt. And the flooding could be much, much worse; not only because the ground will still be water-logged, but also because in 2007, the five-billion-trillion-gazillion dollar levee system, still under government-sponsored construction, won't even be half-way finished.
So, why are they are even thinking of rebuilding inside that Soup Bowl?
Maybe we all need to go get some of the sand that's lying around in the Sahara Desert and ship it on down there, pronto. If we all donated 10 bags of sand, perhaps they could raise the Big Easy up to sea level, and then start rebuilding.
But this claim of rebuilding New Orleans where it sits today, under the ocean, has to be the most insane thing I've ever heard of. . .
. . .other than the Aruban officials letting Van Der Snot go free.
Posted by Karen at September 14, 2005 7:06 PM