Sunday, August 10, 2008

New Orleanians Crying Another Mississippi

...in this morning's Houston Chronicle:

Nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated their city, New Orleanians are deeply dissatisfied with the rebuilding and feel overlooked by the federal government, the national media and the American public.

*insert sound of crying baby here*
Pardon my french, but fuck them. Fuck them all. How do they think many of us felt here in Southeast Texas after Rita barreled through with her 120-mph winds? Were we overlooked? To a large extent I'd say we were -- as were, it would seem, the residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast who REALLY bore the brunt of Katrina's wrath -- but you certainly didn't see any stories in the national media on us whining about it. (I'm guessing the irony of a national media outlet running a story on how New Orleans residents were feeling ignored by the national media was completely lost on the reporter and his employer. And why all the emphasis on New Orleans and none on the beleaguered Mississippi Gulf Coast towns that, again, caught the full wrath of Katrina?) As far as I could tell there was no one down here really whining about the lack of national media exposure for Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana after Rita. We just rolled up our sleeves and went to fixing what Rita tore up. I guess there are varying reasons that isn't the case in New Orleans, but to what extent are any of those reasons valid? So no one's paying any attention to them. And? We didn't get that much attention here either -- a fat lot less than they did, for damn sure -- but we busted our asses and repaired what Rita messed up in spite of all that. Why the hell can't they? Am I the only one who wonders about that?