It's hard to go through the holidays and explain to people how New Orleans is. We want the tourists and conventioneers back. So we want to say "great!" And indeed, this infrastructure is sound; the French Quarter, Marigny, Garden District, and Uptown are all thriving. But so much of the city is still a devastatated wasteland and there is a responsibility to say so. There is nothing in some places. It's like block after block after block after block of Ground Zero in New York City. How do these people endure? Where are they?

It makes me so sad to think about. There are so many people without homes or jobs. And it makes me feel so powerless because our governement is doing nothing about it. And then people have the nerve to ask why New Orleans should be rebuilt. It's like asking why your mother should get a pacemaker when her heart fails. Because you love her and you'd do anything to protect her.