I appreciate Jesse trying to help bring some of us home but the fact that he thought he would get all these New Orleanians to go home right now shows how people don't understand the state of mind of the average New Orleans resident. For years we had been beaten down and battered just from everyday life. Katrina was the icing on the cake for most of us. Do I think most people that were born and raised in New Orleans love the city? Yes I do. Do I think anyone is in a real big hurry to go down there right now? No I don't. The reality is that part of the problem we had is that most of the black and white leadership in this country ignored what was going on down there before Katrina and the problems just got worse. Nobody cared. They thought we liked being poor and uneducated. Well, that might be Cash Money and No Limit's fault (Where's Baby at anyway?). Nevertheless , the school system and drug problems were out of control for years and I never saw the Rainbow Coalition, Nation of Islam, the Congressional Black Caucus, T.D. Jakes or Oprah standing in the middle of the Magnolia Projects trying to bring some change. It took a broken levee and grandparents dying to make everybody say "those Negroes need some help". The black community of New Orleans was drowning years before Katrina and no one came to the rescue. We were in it alone, we suffered alone, got flooded alone and we died alone. If it wasn't for CNN and the Coast Guard, we would probably still be on the rooftops waiting for a rescue while everyone else in the country thought we were dancing on Bourbon St. That has never been our reality.
Maybe I am just bitter right now.
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