I shouldn't read other people's blogs at 7:30 in the morning...

So I seem to have this habit of filling this blog with introspection or defense for my hometown...sorry. But then again, if you had a problem with it, you wouldn't keep coming back for more. Allow me to ramble a little of my anger out this morning.

I was reading through a few blogs this morning, and I came across this one from a person who lived in New Orleans pre-Katrina. This person has since moved on, but returned to the city last week and decided to blog on the experience. I will post this person's quotes in red so as not to be confused with my statements.

"new orleans is a perfect example of how people do not fulfill their promises. and it is easy to blame bush for everything, right? however, the lack of response to katrina, even though it was the worst U.S. natural disaster, shows that there was absolutely no plan whatsoever for this kind of event... In my mind, nagin has had 9 months and the progress is ridiculously dismal."

Yes, our mayor has done his fair share of shoving his foot in his mouth the past nine months...BUT this situation has absolutely no precedent. Yes there is garbage on the streets, yes there is still spray paint on houses, yes we are still broken. But if you want to talk about breaking promises, keep in mind that:

• FEMA has stopped picking up garbage and the city literally has NO money to fix that problem.
• Those are private homes, and last I checked New Orleans was still a part of a non-Communist country. There's no seizing of private property at this time. These people have not returned to scrub the giant Xs off their houses because many of them are crippled by the situation either emotionally, physically, or financially.
• NINE MONTHS. Geez, cut us all a little slack, will you? It's one thing to see the wreckage on tv. Different if it happened to you, but you've moved on to another place/part of your life. However, if you are like me and the thousands of others here, you know that it's different when you live among the debris of your life. We don't have (nor do many of us want) the luxury of being so far removed from this place and situation that we can sit on our high horses and think we know exactly how to fix things from the outside. This is not a part of our past...it is very much our present. We live it every day. You simply cannot wave a magic wand and make it all better.
• Show me a mayor who could have handled this situation better...I doubt you'll find one.

"after passing through in december and looking at the city a little bit closer in may, i can not see any sign of moving forward."

Look a little closer. Seriously.

"N.O.seminary campus is a perfect example of the work of christianity. no other place in n.o. looks like our campus. and that is because we have had thousands of southern baptist volunteers coming to restore the campus."

So what do you call the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people who have flooded our city in disaster relief efforts?? I have spent time with a few hundred of those people, and they have shown me Jesus in so many ways. Just because the 9th ward and St. Bernard don't have a maintenance staff working with volunteers around the clock to make things pristine doesn't mean the love of Christ hasn't been brought there. I have seen it first hand. I have experienced it when groups came to help my family.

"we did not wait for political sturctures to help us. we bonded in brotherly love and took care of our christian family."

Last time I checked, Jesus took care of the sick before the healthy. Now don't get me wrong...all of us - Christian, Jew, atheist, and otherwise - are sick because of this. But "took care of our Christian family"?? Yeah, I don't think there are even words to describe my anger at that statement.

"i can speak personally by saying that if it were not for our faith in God, we would have been materialistic and distraut after losing all we had, because our hope would have been in our possessions. however, our belief is in God who is a constant help in a time of trouble; who has prepared for us a mansion in heaven where no thief (or storm) can destroy."

Well I can speak personally to the fact that my God's big enough to let me be distraught and broken-hearted and doubtful and full of anger...and He still stays constant. Don't minimize people's distress...that could be the most insensitive and hurtful thing to do. I understand what this person is getting at - that hope in God is enduring and sustaining...but please, don't paint a happy face on despair. That is unlove.