Dear New Orleans,
I have an important request for everybody. The president will be visiting this city on October 15. Now, I know that this city is loaded with Democrats. It’s also equally loaded with African Americans. This is the first time since the president’s historic election that he is visiting the city and it wouldn’t be New Orleans if we didn’t lay out the full local experience. I am sure everyone wants the St. Augustine High School band to meet him at the end of the runway and march with him from Air Force One. Once he gets to his first stop I am sure you want the Rebirth Brass Band and The Lady Buck Jumpers to play and dance in his honor. Ms. Leah Chase is probably laying out the menu right now.
All of that sounds good but we better make sure that we get to present every need and concern we have while we have his attention for a short time. Take the president on a helicopter ride over MR-GO and the wetlands. Drive him around and show him all the blight. Make sure he sees all of the closed hospitals. Show him our crime statistics and our budget for NORD. After that, someone needs to have a presentation or something on paper showing him what we plan on doing about all of that and how much it might cost. Make sure he understands that all the complaining about him not visiting the region wasn’t so he could come here and eat at Dooky Chase because it might be awhile before he comes back.
I don’t know if you watch the news but he is a very busy man. There are wars going on, people can’t find jobs, he’s trying to get health care passed and Iran is trying to test him. That's not the whole list of issues he is dealing with but you get the picture. What that says to me is that while the recovery of our city might be a priority, it would be easy to understand if we got lost in the shuffle. We have to make this visit count for something. I don’t think we are going to get a commitment for any extra money because of one visit but President Obama is the kind of man that would welcome extra conversation if your argument is compelling. I don’t want to watch news stories the next day full of nothing but a good time. Let’s focus on the real agenda first and then someone can bring him and Mrs. Obama to The Perfect Fit that evening.
4 comments:
from your lips to gods ears sir.
it's been four years.
if anybody can put another helping on an allready full plate i would put my money on our current comander in cheif.
let's pray that he is able to see the big picture despite all the draws on his attention.
having ms. glapion on our side can't hurt.
more front porch blogs please .
and less humidity.
Dream on, Brother. Da'Man is just dropping by long enough to shake his leg at an undisclosed location.
It appears that our President can't spend too much time in the City That Boy George Left For Dead because...he has a date with Daddy Big George?
From New Orleans, POTUS heads to San Francisco for a DNC fundraiser that evening, and then Friday he flies to College Station, Texas, for a Presidential Forum on community service hosted by former President George H.W. Bush and the Points of Light Institute at the George Bush Presidential Library Center on the campus of Texas A&M University.
http://ochairball.blogspot.com/2009/10/obama-town-hall-in-new-orleans-oct-15.html
I thought that the President already had a bathroom on his Big Plane. So, if this is all he has planned why not just do a fly-over of New Orleans --just don't Flush It!
Hey, it worked for Boy George didn't it?
Could the President also take a look at the school system such as it is, a tour of not just KIPP schools and Green Charter School but schools just getting started, having trouble with facilities and personnel in this fractured system, and the many buildings slated to be landbanked or ignored? Could he stop by the libraries--good thing he's not coming on a Friday--and take a good look? Praise for grace and style under duress is nice but allows folks to skip by the deprivation. NO deserves more because it has offered enough to the US and LA to have earned it.
He hasn't been here because he's busy and he hasn't needed us. Bush had crap to make up for. Plus, Obama and his administration believe the mainstream lie, that a natural disaster wrecked NO. [And subsequently ignore the decimation caused by Katrina, Rita, Ivan, Gustav in LA and MS.] You can't prevent natural disaster, only clean up well and efficiently afterward, so there's no need to worry about levee designs, local economies, corruption, crime rates, etc.
Truthfully, it has to start with us, and I don't just mean pulling the President's coat tails a la Oliver Twist begging for "some more." Not to say that our issues shouldn't be presented to him, but let's look at the facts: We market ourselves as a party town that rivals Vegas. People come here and do things they wouldn't dare do in their own cities, not to speak of neighborhoods, then go home and leave us to clean the mess - which is pretty much all we can do, because our kids are so undereducated BY DESIGN, they're forced into labor positions.
New Orleans doesn't want to be taken seriously. Not on the whole. If we did, why did we still have Mardi Gras after Katrina? I don't want to hear that crap about morale and all that other foolishness. Getting to the next level requires sacrifice. Would it have killed the city to say "Yes, we love to party and we're GREAT at it, but we lost over 1,000 to misdirected priorities. Let's take a look at the issue first and we'll party next year." (I wonder how many people read that, viewing it as akin to me cursing?)
DC will never be home to me, but let me tell you, when you screw up, they shut your ass down. The mayor appears on the news channels every week to give an accounting on WTF he's doing, and they don't pull any punches with him. They hired and laid off a slew of teachers within months, and so parents and STUDENTS marched. They didn't hold a second line. They marched on that shit IN AN ORDERLY FASHION. I'm 504 for life, but I also know how my people do. We want better, we have to DO BETTER.
Cliff, how about you have your kufi smacking hand ready so that whenever someone presents the Prez with some coonery, you can smack the sanctified monkey snot out of them? That includes C-Ray! That mofo ain't got a damn thing to celebrate.
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