Smearing my HOME

We’re starting to see a really sad phenomenon across the country. People, some of whom were so supportive right after Katrina hit, are now saying New Orleans and its surrounding communities should be abandoned and not be rebuilt. Some claim this is because NOLA is below sea level and at risk for future hurricanes, and other sick fucktards claim it is because we all deserved what we got because NOLA is a “haven for sinners” and other such bullshit.

I’m just physically, mentally and spiritually drained by all of this. This is my HOME we’re talking about, the place where I grew up and lived my life; it’s where my family and friends are, and it has my history, my past, my future, my dreams, my loves, my hates all intertwined into one geographic landscape. Why should all of that be abandoned because the location has some risk involved?

And why are we all of the sudden so skiddish about risky locations? California is prone to earthquakes and wildfires, the Midwest is prone to tornadoes, Hawaii is prone to volcanoes, the northern states are prone to dangerous blizzards, and more—yet there is no chorus saying that these places should be abandoned and that the people who live there should lose everything they’ve ever known and their whole past and history. Hell, there generally aren’t even credible people saying Florida should be abandoned. In fact, last year, after Hurricane Frances pounded Florida like a baseball bat, FEMA actually gave the area several billion dollars MORE than they needed (*cough, cough* election year *cough, cough*) and we didn’t hear anyone complaining.

I know it’s going to cost a lot of money, and I’m sorry for that. I can promise you that Louisiana begged Congress for help paying for stronger levees for years, but we were met with a deaf ear because it would have cost between $10-20 billion. That deaf ear is now costing the country at least $200 billion.

But this is America, and we are American citizens. If most of the country was willing to go on a “nation-building exercise” in Iraq that has cost us $200 billion to date, and will cost us at least another $50-100 billion in the future, then surely your fellow Americans are worth it too. We did nothing to deserve any of this, despite what some “religious” leaders are saying, and we don’t deserve to lose everything we’ve ever known because of this natural disaster.

Along that last note, the people who believe we got what we deserved because of our “sins” are some of the most despicable, vile, and unChristian people on the planet, and I won’t address them on my blog. I’m positive that there’s a nice, boiling hot place in hell for all of those sick bastards, and I don’t need to waste my energy on them.

For everyone willing to give up on New Orleans and its surrounding communities, please put yourselves in our shoes. We need our homes and our lives back, but perhaps even more importantly, we need to have the hope of getting back everything we lost. And no, I’m not delusional when I say “everything we lost”; I know everything will never be exactly the same. But it isn’t even just the tangible buildings, streets and stores that we need back the most—-we lost our communities, our sense of togetherness, our hopes and dreams, and we need to have the hope of getting all that back.

Without that hope, we Katrina victims have even less than nothing, and now there are fellow American citizens who would take that hope away. Please, don’t victimize us twice. We went through enough with the hurricane and its own immediate aftermath; don’t take any more away from us. Please.