Monday, February 25, 2008

Lost in all the hubbub over the Walking Id's outbursts against the mainstream media and the "bloggers" was a little bit at the beginning of the Eric Paulsen-Sally Ann Roberts interview that talked about the recent success of the city's hosting of the NBA All-Star Game, and, more importantly, the $52 million rebuilding of the Orleans Parish Prison. A rebuilding partially financed by FEMA at first, but then revealed to be a possible money pit for recovery money from the agency.

In light of the recent studies stating that yes, the trailers allotted to displaced and rebuilding homeowners are indeed toxic and all those people have not been crying wolf, the following words best describe how I feel about the juxtaposition of these two stories:

Tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of law-abiding New Orleanian can't seem to get the federal, state and local governments to get up off the collective asses and keep their collective promises to rebuild their destroyed homes, but by God nothing will stand in the way of government rebuilding destroyed prisons to house the poorest of the poor blacks.

Post-racial America my ass.

Thanks, Reverend.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Grrrrl, you are so correct! I hung this onto the Ladder waaay back on the 19th. It was a TP article, very hush-hush...here was the Editilla Headline:
N.O. Jailhouse Demolitions Begin
~FEMA will pay for one-to-one housing replacement, supports 'right of return' for inmates, Do Not Pass MRGO & Do Not Collect $200
I have been there and people need to realize that New Orleans already had a state-of-the art prison--just for the city/parrish!
Great post!
Yer on!:)

Anonymous said...

So right Grrrrl,
I have been there and let me tell you NOLA had a state of the art prison Before The Storm, just for the city parrish! Jeez Louie, anyone used to taking the train knows how long it takes to pass by the cellblocks.
I hung this story hush-hush story onto the Ladder way back on the 19th and here was my Editilla Motella Headline:
N.O. jailhouse demolitions begin
~FEMA will pay for one-to-one housing replacement, supports 'right of return' for inmates, Do Not Pass MRGO & Do Not Collect $200

Looks like y'all had fun at the AltMed Show. Way to go. I too wondered about the Rising Tide Site Thingy as there never seems to be anything current on it. The latest post on the blog is Aug 29th?
Just sayin'...

Anonymous said...

oops sorry for the double post eek.
But you know I am really begining to get itchy about this disaster economy hooking in the prison privitizatons. Guess you can't have one without the other, eh?

Leigh C. said...

It's also what concerns me about the privatization of all the housing that's being demolished. Who do we need to browbeat to give us some concrete plans for getting housing back, and how do we get these schmos demolishing the housing to sign some contracts that hold them to putting it back?

All of it is very disturbing.