one could have for a Presidential debate or for Netroots Nation 2009. And this means post-8/29 New Orleans.
First of all, regarding her rejection as a debate venue by the Commission on Presidential Debates, Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu has been quoted as saying
the commission position that the city hasn't sufficiently recovered from Katrina is silly.
Secondly, New Orleans' rejection as the venue for Netroots Nation 2008 is similarly asinine, and will be discussed later on in this post.
This is because New Orleans and her people, after having been impacted by flooding due to the failure of federally-maintained levees, are now being affected by all of the other issues--ones being discussed regularly by the candidates--that have been affecting the rest of America. Except that these, because of the flood's aftermath, have been impacting New Orleans to what seems to be an exaggerated extent now--but in the future could become the norm if the situation is allowed to deteriorate the way it has been.
For example, health care. It is true that this nation's health care system is in a bad way due to several factors. They include the fact that there are so many poor, uninsured people needing medical care who end up going without needed treatment or preventive care until their condition worsens enough for them to end up at an emergency room. In more densely-populated places, this has led to overcrowded ER's ansd hospitals having trouble staying open due to patients' inability to pay. And even insured people who find that their insurance won't go far enough to cover the treatment they need wind up unable to pay huge medical bills.
Regarding New Orleans--after the flood, her hospitals, especially the ER's, are overwhelmed
And it's not just the disappearance of indigent care that has overwhelmed the emergency rooms. Facing damage, higher operating costs, a dwindling population and well as their own personal problems due to the storm, many physicians and medical professionals fled the city in the wake of the storm. Even insured residents are having trouble getting in to primary care physicians and are waiting up to two or more months for a visit. When medications start to run low, a pain grows worse or they become desperate, they head for the emergency room. From psych patients on the verge of breakdown seeking medication to dialysis patients, the ERs are feeling the brunt of the storm.
And regarding mental health services,
If there is one area where the emergency rooms have seen a tremendous surge, it is in the inflow of psychiatric patients. A lack of beds in the city has driven many to the ERs in search of medicine and police are dropping off cases at the doorsteps of hospitals. Pre-Katrina, the city had 365 psychiatric beds but that number has now been whittled down to 105 beds. New Orleans suicide rate has tripled since Katrina and depression is rampant.
"A lot of people are coming in that had no psychiatric history in the past. You take an 80-year-old person that may have been living in the same home for 50 years and they now have no place to live, it's very difficult for them to handle," said Pat Betz, RN, Ochsner emergency department patient care coordinator.
That's just one example. New Orleans is also having serious problems regarding other things communities all around the US have been having trouble with, such as education, immigration, race and class issues, the environment, the nation's infrastructure, etc. All issues the presidential candidates need to highlight.
New Orleans is the canary in the coal mine because the problems which the disatrous events of 8/29 have brought to a head will sooner or later come to a head elsewhere in the country, because of the current economic disaster. In New Orleans these problems are magnified. So her problems should not be dismissed as local or regional, or as yesterday's news. What's now going on in New Orleans could affect you and your community before you know it.
Because a New Orleans debate is necessary, Mitch Landrieu and Gov. Bobby Jindal have invited the nominees of both major parties to a New Orleans debate. Now the ball is in the candidates' court whether or not they'll accept this invitation. If McCain rejects it, he'll just be showing the GOP's true colors as being the party standing behind BushCo's neglect of and inattention to New Orleans and her people's desperate needs.
Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, however, have previously called for a New Orleans debate. It would be highly suspicious were either one,if nominated, to turn down the Jindal/Landrieu invitation, looking as if some sort of behind-the-scenes "ladies' and gentlemen's agreement had taken place between the Democrats and those wishing to supress New Orleans' recovery. The way such an agreement seems to have taken place regarding the Commission on Presidential Debates' rejection of New Orleans as a debate venue in the first place.
Now for Netroots Nation 2009. According to the author of this article, New Orleans had come very close to being the venue for Netroots Nation 2008. But her unsuitability for being such a venue is debatable. Because New Orleans, with her 26,000 hotel rooms, is more than just suitable for being the venue of a Netroots Nation convention. She would be a popular choice. So No ifs, ands, or buts, about it.
I tried to Google Netroots Nation in an attempt to find an update regarding the search for a venue for Netroots Nation 2009, but have come up empty-handed. The most recent info I've run across is from last Nov., when we found out New Orleans had been rejected. Does anyone know what's going on, or is this all cloak-and-dagger (perhaps to keep people rooting for New Orleans as a venue from putting in their two cents' worth?)
Here's what the organizers of Netroots Nation 2009 need to do: They need to consider New Orleans not just as a venue, they need to consider her the only venue for Netroots Nation. And we all--NOLA Kossacks and other supporters of New Orleans' recovery--need to keep the presure on Netroots Nation decisionmakers to make sure they don't back out of holding a convention in New Orleans in 2009.
NOLA DIARY-ATHON SCHEDULE. ALL TIMES PACIFIC
Thurs., Mar. 20
7AM Louisiana 1976
9AM blueintheface
11AM chigh
1PM mlharges
3PM Avila
5PM YatPundit
Fri., Mar. 21
7AM Crashing Vor
11AM pico
1PM Chicagoa
3PM leo fender
5PM Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse