Dear Katrina...

Dear Katrina,

It was a year ago today that you came through New Orleans and acted a complete fool. You destroy homes, businesses and worst of all you took 1600 lives.

I remember seeing the bodies floating in the remnants of your devastation and the horrified survivors on the rooftops screaming at the news cameras that hovered above for help. Everyone watched in disbelief as we saw thousands of people living in a football stadium. The old and the young, the criminals and the innocent, the poor and the poorer all there together begging, pleading for help.

Then I watched as the so called african american leaders who have lined their pockets with the money of those same poor people took the opportunity to blame George Bush and any other white person who wasn't swimming to the Superdome to carry those people to safety. I watched as George Bush spoke and and acted before thinking leading us all to believe that he didn't care about those people, the majority of whom were black. Once they saw all those black fingers pointing at them they were able to point the finger right back at another black face, mayor Ray Nagin.

While the politicians pointed and shifted blame an 80 year old woman in desperate need of insulin slept on the 50 yardline of a football field. A father tried to keep an eye on his young daughter amongst the pedophiles that no doubt roamed the arena. New young mothers rationed out food to their young children not knowing when or if someone would show up to save them.
And still the fingers continued to point, only not in the direction of 1500 Poydras St. Well except for Barbara Bush's wrinkled little fat finger. She pointed out that the little boys and girls sleeping on cots and right under a goal post were living better than they ever had before.

1 year later the devastation remains, not only from when you blew through one of the world's most famous cities but the devastation of the ineptitude of those that we look to for help in these types of situations. In fact on this the 1 year anniversary many will use the death and destruction as a platform to win some political race. And this at a time when it is being reported that of the 4 billion dollars that was raised appoxamately 75% has been stolen. While the contracts to rebuild the city have been given not to the sons and daughter of New Orleans but to the friends and cronies of the vice president and other politicians. Now all fingers are pointing to those destroyed areas as the land has become prime real estate. The same land that was neglected when those poor and uneducated resided in broken down project buildings is now cause for great concern. The black leaders don't want the white people to have the land, the white people want to make money regardless of who lives there and those poor and disenfranchised folks that lived in constantly lit bowl for two weeks are now living in the same worn down projects in different American cities.

Katrina you're going to get a lot of attention in the upcoming months and some might even try to blame you for what you did to that city but in reality it's not your fault. They knew you were coming. Maybe they didn't know when but they knew sooner or later you'd show up but those raggedy levees weren't priority at the time because of who they protected. No Katrina it's not your fault it's their fault. All of them. Of course they'll all take their hands out of the lobbyists pockets for a second to point fingers at each other while the other hand is making sure that they get some of that prime real estate.