Tha Thoughts of One Native

I am from New Orleans. I was born in tha late 70th, and I hate to love my birth city unconditionally.  Ya see On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina threatened to destroy that city I hate to love so dearly for all time. It was not unreasonable to question whether this city could bounce back. Tha response defied tha minds of many that some could be so thoughtful and giving, while others could be so harsh and cruel. Hurricane Katrina, or should I say tha eye opener, brought out tha best and tha worst in this country. On one hand you could see people coming together to be a blessing to each other displaying tha value of #humanity. Yet on tha other hand one could also see tha #blatant #racism, cruelty, lack of humanity, and simple lack of common decency that oozed out others like venom.Now can you see why I can honestly say that I hate to love my birth place.

To me... I wish that New Orleans was tha greatest, and tha most magical place, in this country. I love tha culture, people, architecture, music…tha lyfe flow. Some will only acknowledge tha violence and corruption that has ravished tha city for many years. However, New Orleans is no different then many major metropolitan #blackcities in this regard. There were some who felt tha city should not be rebuilt, and that New Orleans had received its divine recompense. Yet, I find that to be a harsh judgmental position.  Tha city does not deal with any problems that are uncommon to other major cities like New York, Baltimore, or Chicago. I’d like to believe we would not discuss allowing other major cities to be destroyed. I must say that I do believe that tha city, and those that were lost deserve to be commemorated and remembered with tha same passion and respect we give to 9/11 victims. As we celebrate lyfe on tha road to restoration, and a spirit that is #NewOrleans undying we must be mindful not to celebrate destruction. There are still many,10 years later, that are trying to piece together their lives. There are still many who wrestle with tha reality that they were not able to be with their loved ones when they passed, or give them a proper burial. Anyone that knows New Orleans culture, and tradition, knows that tha burial of tha dead is both spiritual and ritualistic for us, and there are many that suffer inside for having not been able to send their loved ones off and in what they believed to be a proper manner. We are still recovering. There are places in New Orleans that still look like a war zone, and people that were murdered that will receive no justice. There is still so much work that need to be done. I personally cannot emphasize this enough. that one of tha reason why I hate to love that place

Having said that I must acknowledge that I had very mixed emotions seeing pictures of former President George W Bush in New Orleans with among-st our people. I wasn’t confused about my feelings; my first reaction was anger. If felt as though one was trying to soften tha blow that history will give him regarding tha handling of #HurricaneKatrina. I personally don’t feel he did enough for a major city in tha United States of America on his watch. I wish I could have seen him as attentive in tha aftermath of the destruction as I saw in pictures of him this week. Please believe me this is not about Republican vs Democrat position because I am neither of those two. This feeling is about a native New Orleanian that loves his home enough to expose tha truth so it can get tha right help it really need and a president that I personally feel let us down as we are Americans last I checked.

I know that some will believe that this is the wrong response to have however too many times we see our politicians and our officials late, and after tha fact. I can’t say that President Bush did not feel anything towards those that were in peril…I can only say it looked bad and felt worse. To know, and I acknowledge, that three levels of government failed defies my mind to this day. I looked at tha federal response with a different anger only because it was tha top of tha food chain, and tha chain broke.  I love tha nature of my city. I love that we truly are tha Big Easy, tha Crescent City…and we will forgive you, for tha most part, and move on.To my fellow New Orleans always remember that once upon a time we were considered refugees in our own nation. It is not a point to brew over, but we should use it as motivation to become more self reliant and community focused. Tha bottom line is tha government and its officials can only do so much; we must take it upon ourselves as citizens to preserve tha culture and tha city’s flow and way of lyfe. It is up to us every single day to make New Orleans a better place. to love to love it........