I am so fedup with the current elections in New Orleans. Every candidate is resorting to name calling, half truths, and just outright lies. What happened to running on your record? What happened to running on the issues. It's become some sort of evil popularity contest. There is no possibility to take the high road. The mud slingers that call themselves professional political consultants have made an art of making voters more instrested in the dirt than the issues.
Come on people! Vote for the person you feel can do the best job, period. At this point in New Orleans, nothing else matters. It doesn't matter where they got financed, or who they party with, or who they said hello to on the way home from second grade.
To all the candidates, let me give you my humble opinion. You wasted your campaign's money, and a ton of the voter's time when you hired that overpriced "expert" that is running your campaign. Stop trying to cut down your opponent. Stop the double talk about how the "first day" your going to save the world. The only people that believe that you can make that kind of change are smoking or snorting stuff you don't want or need. Start giving specifics on how you can come into your position if elected, make some positive change for this city. More importantly, how you will bring together all the bickering factions locally and state wide into a unified group effort to put New Orleans and Louisiana back together.
I've seen the polls. Don't let a poll sway your vote. Vote for the person that you think will do the best job, not the one you think is the "less crooked" of the two. Do some research. Check the candidates records of both what they have done as a politician and in the private sector. Be educated, not just listen to the media and the tainted propaganda out there.
Most importantly, VOTE! Take the time to exercise your right.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
You Have To See It for Yourself.
I've been back home now for almost a month. As part of my new duties, I have to work on sites in Chalmette proper, as well as in lower Saint Bernard Parish, right between Regio and Delicroix. We lost the site in lower Saint Bernard, which has been rebuild, and the one in Chalmette got a couple of inches of water.
I thought I was prepared to see the devistation, but all the TV coverage, the posted pictures, and the stories told to me didn't prepare me for what's still out there. I've now taken the route that was a daily commute for me when I lived in the metro back in the early and mid 90's about a half dozen times. As you head down Claiborne you see things get worse until you get to the top of the Judge Sieber bridge, then it looks like some drunk went insane with a bulldozer. Pleaces I remember since I was a child, just gone.
Then you get down into chalmette, and see the businesses just completely washed out, and house after house gutted, abandoned, and debris piled 15 to 20 feet high in the front yard. I made the trek to our old apartment. The once crowded streets around it are a ghost town. I neighborhood that used to house hundreds of families, all gone except for the occaisional sherrif's deputy. My old apartment building has shifted. My old apartment completely gutted, and the door left open. Someone had gone through the entire area ripping open every mailbox.
Then I made my way down to the lower part of the parish. The further south I went, the more my jaw dropped. Katrina packed one hell of a punch. Buildings completely flattened. Houses missing, with the only thing left in sight is the piers the house used to be perched on 10 to 15 feet off the ground. The amount of cars, boats, containers, and debris scattered about like tinker toys just puts you in shock.
I've taken time to visit my friends and families homes in Lakeview, Gentilly, and on the northshore. Some are almost finished renovations, praying that life will somehow return to "normal", while most are just getting started, or even sitting around waiting for FEMA to get a clue.
Being away from home for a decade, I've noticed that even after all that has happened, most people are still the friendly, hospitible, yats I grew up with.
My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone still working to put the pieces together. This area will come back.
I thought I was prepared to see the devistation, but all the TV coverage, the posted pictures, and the stories told to me didn't prepare me for what's still out there. I've now taken the route that was a daily commute for me when I lived in the metro back in the early and mid 90's about a half dozen times. As you head down Claiborne you see things get worse until you get to the top of the Judge Sieber bridge, then it looks like some drunk went insane with a bulldozer. Pleaces I remember since I was a child, just gone.
Then you get down into chalmette, and see the businesses just completely washed out, and house after house gutted, abandoned, and debris piled 15 to 20 feet high in the front yard. I made the trek to our old apartment. The once crowded streets around it are a ghost town. I neighborhood that used to house hundreds of families, all gone except for the occaisional sherrif's deputy. My old apartment building has shifted. My old apartment completely gutted, and the door left open. Someone had gone through the entire area ripping open every mailbox.
Then I made my way down to the lower part of the parish. The further south I went, the more my jaw dropped. Katrina packed one hell of a punch. Buildings completely flattened. Houses missing, with the only thing left in sight is the piers the house used to be perched on 10 to 15 feet off the ground. The amount of cars, boats, containers, and debris scattered about like tinker toys just puts you in shock.
I've taken time to visit my friends and families homes in Lakeview, Gentilly, and on the northshore. Some are almost finished renovations, praying that life will somehow return to "normal", while most are just getting started, or even sitting around waiting for FEMA to get a clue.
Being away from home for a decade, I've noticed that even after all that has happened, most people are still the friendly, hospitible, yats I grew up with.
My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone still working to put the pieces together. This area will come back.
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