From: "Gary Britt" 

I've never said parasites plague my house.  Properly labeling things is an
exercise in semantics not an allegation of grievance.  The parasites of New
Orleans certainly plague New Orleans.

Gary

"John Cuccia"  wrote in message
news:9pcrp1tgfdnr5395q7cudm17091v0f72da{at}4ax.com...
> Here's a Sunday NY Times editorial on the future of New Orleans.
>
> Unfortunately the column ignores the fact that the drowning of New
> Orleans was a man-made catastrophe, caused by the inability of the
> Corps of Engineers to supervise the design of a floodwall, improperly
> framing the debate as a question of will to recover from an act of
> God, but that's not particularly germane to the question of whether or
> not to fix the problem..
>
> At any rate, the people of New Orleans, including the "parasites" who
> plague GaryB's house, deserver an answer.  They need to be told if the
> country is ready to write off the city (and by extension, the state of
> Louisiana), as certainly appears to be the case today.
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/opinion/11sun1.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditori
als%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fEditorials
> We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to
> let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest
> paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major
> American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists
> to visit like a museum.
>
> We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it wouldn't happen.
> He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine
> America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since
> Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.
>
> There are many unanswered questions that will take years to work out,
> but one is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It
> all boils down to the levee system. People will clear garbage, live in
> tents, work their fingers to the bone to reclaim homes and lives, but
> not if they don't believe they will be protected by more than patches
> to the same old system that failed during the deadly storm.
> Homeowners, businesses and insurance companies all need a commitment
> before they will stake their futures on the city.
>
> At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless ship. There is no
> effective leadership that we can identify. How many people could even
> name the president's liaison for the reconstruction effort, Donald
> Powell? Lawmakers need to understand that for New Orleans the words
> "pending in Congress" are a death warrant requiring no signature.
>
> The rumbling from Washington that the proposed cost of better levees
> is too much has grown louder. Pretending we are going to do the
> necessary work eventually, while stalling until the next hurricane
> season is upon us, is dishonest and cowardly. Unless some clear, quick
> commitments are made, the displaced will have no choice but to sink
> roots in the alien communities where they landed.
>
> The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane, which
> would involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new
> drainage canals and environmental restoration, would very likely run
> to well over $32 billion. That is a lot of money. But that starting
> point represents just 1.2 percent of this year's estimated $2.6
> trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates the case,
> since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely
> one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last
> week by the House of Representatives.
>
> Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on
> terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated
> as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what
> was the worst possible case we fought to prevent?
>
> Losing a major American city.
>
> "We'll not just rebuild, we'll build higher and better," President
> Bush said that night in September. Our feeling, strongly, is that he
> was right and should keep to his word. We in New York remember well
> what it was like for the country to rally around our city in a
> desperate hour. New York survived and has flourished. New Orleans can
> too.
>
> Of course, New Orleans's local and state officials must do their part
> as well, and demonstrate the political and practical will to rebuild
> the city efficiently and responsibly. They must, as quickly as
> possible, produce a comprehensive plan for putting New Orleans back
> together. Which schools will be rebuilt and which will be absorbed?
> Which neighborhoods will be shored up? Where will the roads go? What
> about electricity and water lines? So far, local and state officials
> have been derelict at producing anything that comes close to a
> coherent plan. That is unacceptable.
>
> The city must rise to the occasion. But it will not have that
> opportunity without the levees, and only the office of the president
> is strong enough to goad Congress to take swift action. Only his voice
> is loud enough to call people home and convince them that commitments
> will be met.
>
> Maybe America does not want to rebuild New Orleans. Maybe we have
> decided that the deficits are too large and the money too scarce, and
> that it is better just to look the other way until the city withers
> and disappears. If that is truly the case, then it is incumbent on
> President Bush and Congress to admit it, and organize a real plan to
> help the dislocated residents resettle into new homes. The communities
> that opened their hearts to the Katrina refugees need to know that
> their short-term act of charity has turned into a permanent
> commitment.
>
> If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the
> people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We
> must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in
> Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and
> shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to
> rebuild one of its great cities.
>
> Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we
> admit it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New
> Orleans lives or dies.
>

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