A fuller response to a commenter at Dave Zirin's concerning his latest column:

"I know a New Orleans refugee--ironically, she is white."

... the tragedy here extended to all races, all creeds, all walks of life, and it is still doing so. I see no irony in your mention of the woman's color. The largest of the levee breaches was at the 17th Street Canal, and it inundated a majority white neighborhood with up to 14 feet of water. Homes were knocked off foundations there, too, just as in the Ninth Ward. In places like the Lower Nine, people cannot come back and rebuild because they are too poor to do so - rising costs of living here coupled with the same old tourist service jobs that are not keeping up with those costs make recovery extremely difficult. Those who attempt to stick it out and rebuild face serious roadblocks in the form of insurance companies refusing claims and/or the scarcity of Road Home monies - not to mention the indiscriminate demolitions of private homes that are so well documented by local activist Karen Gadbois. Anybody who wants to return to Lakeview faces the exact same thing - and they also face the added idiocy of the absence of white collar jobs that could help anchor them to the communities they are trying to rebuild. Failure to support real infrastructure such as hospital reconstitution, social services such as daycare and support for the elders of the community, and economic development that is NOT tourist-centric is hampering the recovery of this city and contributing to its further decline.

The NBA players such as Steve Nash have got it right - they can't relate. They can, however, lend a hand, which is much more than government, at all levels, has done. When the mayor talks about relocating the homeless living under the I-10 Claiborne Avenue overpass to giant tents in Central City, what problems does that really address? When he and the police chief show off their new assault weapons they have acquired to supposedly help fight crime (most likely, it is simply more firepower to aid in their security measures for the hosting of the economic summit that Dubya has thrown to this region), does it mean they will address the greater problems of why their current officers have to work twelve to sixteen hour shifts at a time and mostly patrol alone? The projects are coming down, but what is going up in their place? That land is being passed over to private developers who say that they are going to redevelop the land as mixed-income housing - but the only contracts they are held to are the ones for demolition.

I want to give your friend a big hug. I want to find some sort of treatment for her, but I know that, if she is anything like me and most of the other folks I know, she will want to be here, where her heart is. This city is being kicked around on all sides, but we who are here and fighting it out would rather go it in the trenches here. Living any other way for us is living as a zombie would.

(Note: When I say "zombie", I don't mean this one. No offense meant to Dambala. More folks oughta live as he does actually, minus the fish and the scooter injuries...)

(Anudda note: This is a "fuller" response, because the second half of it was rejected by Edge of Sports' comment filter. S'allright. I got my own blog. ;-D )