My brother, who has lived in New Orleans for about 25 years, was among the hundreds of thousands who evacuated. He and his girlfriend were in better shape than many: they were non-poor and mobile.
They roamed the country for about six weeks after the flood, including a stop in Crawford to meet Cindy Sheehan (who, wonderfully, asked what she could do to help them).
They went back to find their house relatively undamaged, and have been helping their neighbors dig out. On Sunday, he had a letter to the editor printed in the New York Times.
To the Editor:
Yes, if the rest of the country has decided that New Orleans is not of sufficient value to the United States to commit to its protection and rebuilding, it should let us know.
Not because we'll need time to plan for the abandonment of our city, but because we'll need time to prepare for our separation from the United States.
New Orleans and the Gulf Coast provide America with oil, gas, food and the perfect port for transshipping goods for import and export. We will continue to provide your country with these resources once we establish ourselves as an independent republic. The only difference will be the price you'll pay.
Instead of confiscating most of the royalties earned on oil produced here, you'll pay the prevailing price and we'll decide how to spend the revenues. We'll have no problem building Category 5-proof levees and restoring our wetlands with our vastly expanded national treasury.
We'll gladly share our bounty of food and imported goods with you - at market prices, of course - and graciously allow your shipping to use our port, with reasonable duties.
And when, as is sure to happen, we are struck by a storm or some other disaster, we'll marshal our people and resources, roll up our sleeves and take care of our own. After all, we've had some practice with that.
"privatewl's brother"
New Orleans, Dec. 11, 2005
I'm posting the diary simply to pimp my brother's brilliance here. I'm proud of him.
UPDATE: Original NYT editorial