Goodbye, New Orleans: It’s Time We Stopped Pretending

[hadrons]

AS WE REACH THE 90-DAY mark since Katrina hit, it's time we ended our national state of denial. Turns out House Speaker Dennis Hastert had it right all along, though his reasons were flawed. We should call it quits in New Orleans not because the city can't be made relatively safe from hurricanes. It can be. And not because to do so is more trouble than it's worth. It's not. But because the Bush Administration has already given New Orleans a quiet kiss of death now that the story has run its news cycle.

As someone who dearly loves New Orleans and has experienced many of her charms, it pains me immeasurably to call for this retreat. This is not a rhetorical stunt or a shock argument meant to invite compromise talks. I mean what I say: Shut the city down and board it up before thousands more lives are lost…

....

To encourage people to return to New Orleans, as Bush is doing, without funding the only plan that can save the city from the next Big One, is to commit an act of mass homicide. If, after all the human suffering and expense of this national ordeal, the federal government can't be bothered to spend the cost of a tunnel from Logan Airport to downtown Boston, then the game is truly over.


Anyone who doesn't like this news—farmers who export grain through the port of New Orleans, New Englanders who heat their homes with natural gas from the Gulf, cultural enthusiasts who like their gumbo in the French Quarter—should all direct their comments straight to the White House. But don't wait around for a response.

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/front/index_front.html

[WI_DEM]

1. maybe the Bush administration has given it the kiss of death

but a future Democratic congress and/or president won't. Also I'm hoping the DNC will decide to hold our national convention in New Orleons--that would be a tremendous boost.

[Maggie_May]

2. Thats a great idea

We need to have a ad showing the destruction in New Orleans and than show the destruction in Iraq and let that make it own statement. Where do you want your tax dollars spent.

[long_green]

5. nice idea

but you do know that the convention would be during hurricane season?

[Bridget Burke]

3. The Houston Chronicle also ran this piece....

The writer does NOT want New Orleans abandoned. But he explains how past neglect made the city more vulnerable to storms. And how a good plan for restoring the wetlands was grossly underfunded--by Bush's government.

[RandomKoolzip]

4. On Sunday's "Hardball," Chris Matthews and his bunch

all said that it was the fault of the citizens of NOLA, who wanted their city back, and were selfish enough to not want to let federal/coroporate planners in to "experiment" (their words) with the shape and content of New Orleans.