needs to be the DKos community's mantra regarding Katrina, Rita, and BushCo's neglect of New Orleans and the rest of the area impacted by the dual disaster of 8/29. Not "Get over it!" or "Katrina was so two years ago!"
And we need to take a firm stand on these issues now more than ever, with the upcoming election. Not just the presidential, though voting for a Democratic administration regardless of whoever wins the nomination would be nice. We need to make sure Democrats are elected, or re-elected, to the House and Senate. So we will have a government that does not merely care about Gulf Region recovery, but actively rebuilds the area and brings home all evacuees who want to return.
Last night on the spur of the moment I decided, since the 9AM Pacific time slot in my NOLA Diary-Athon was currently vacant, I'd write and post a second diary for this time slot.
Because yesterday morning I ran across this first-rate diary which, while it wasn't officially part of the NOLA Diary-Athon, it and the attached comments fit in with the theme. And I'd like to add my two cents' worth: while many, especially wingnuts, have been blathering about everything Pastor Wright said, taking his words out of context and twisting them around to discredit Obama, they've all forgotten derogatory things that were said, includng by themselves, during the federal flood, regarding New Orleans and her people.
Our DKos community cannot forget not only the horrific events of 8/29 but also BushCo's inaction regarding and neglect of New Orleans which continues to this day. We must not be swayed by a mainstream media, allegedly "liberal" yet actually conservative and corporate-owned, which, having decided the storms and flood are "yesterday's news" rarely if ever cover them anymore.
We must not lose sight of the fact that Katrina, Rita, and the flood are not old news--they are still having a tremendous impact on the lives of many in the disaster--and who had been forced to scatter by the disaster throughout the country.
Every evacuee stranded in Houston, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, or any other distant place, pining for Louisiana, unable to return;
Every homesick resident of a Bushville of FEMA trailers, inside Louisiana or along Mississippi's Gulf Coast, cramped and crowded and forced to breathe formaldehyde-filled air;
Everybody who once had spent time awaiting rescue on a NOLA overpass, who now must live under the very same overpass, being unable to find affordable housing;
Every PTSD-shattered child in Louisiana--or similarly-affected parent--now experiencing the symptoms of soldiers home from battle--for whom the place where they live has become a war zone, yet doesn't receive one iota of the attention BushCo's war zones have been getting;
Everybody who's now depressed to the point of considering suicide, frustrated by inability to find mental health care in a tortured Louisiana agonized by an epidemic of depression and other mental ills, with insufficient resources to ease the pain of the afflicted;
Everybody going without treatment for heart trouble, cancer, diabetes, or other chronic ills, unable to visit a doctor due to New Orleans' shortage of physicians, and end up dying from preventable causes;
Every parent whose children can't attend school due to New Orleans' schools' not having enough room for them;
All of these people and more bear testimony to why we Kossacks must never forget Katrina and the federal flood--and that inaction and neglect like BushCo's must never happen again. This is why it's important to know where all candidates stand on the disasters of 8/29 and Bush Administration response.
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
9AM Louisiana 1976
mlharges
11AM pico
1PM Chicagoa
3PM leo fender
5PM Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse