......and now for another view point.
I volunteered for duty in NO after Katrina and was deployed. I was actually there when Rita came by. Anyway, I wrote the following about some of my experiences there:
Howdy Gang,
Well...I'm back from New Orleans.
It was quite an experiance! And that's about all I can say, it was so different that it's difficult to put into words! The devastation down there is nearly indiscribeable (SP?) But it's strange!!! East NO and the Ninth ward look like the aftermath of a nuke, yet the down town area and the French Quarter looked nearly untouched. (looked being the operative word there). Even those areas suffered some damage, flooding, wind damage, looting damage...but it's sporadic in nature. Many businesses are operative, some completely, others running under the gun and trying to stay open while cleaning up and repairing damage at the same time.
I should also tell you that what you have seen on television doesn't do justice to the conditions there. While going through the hard hit areas I felt so sad and at the same time insignificant, unable to help all the thousands of locals who are trying to salvage something of their former lives. No pictures can really make one understand the heartbreaking scenes one encounters. Homes with water lines eight feet high, windows and doors missing, roofs torn off.......with huge piles of furniture, clothing, toys, and the hundreds of personal things that we all take for granted, piled in the streets in front of them. And families picking through those remains of their lives. The really hard part? Mile after mile, after mile, after mile.....of the same scenes of devastated homes and lives!
And yet....the people!!!!!!!! They are astounding! You walk through through all that destruction thinking "I CAN'T help all these people" and then some poor guy who is digging through the remains of his home will see you and yell out, "HEY! Thanks for coming here!" as you go by. Sometimes, the locals will be fixing themselves coffee on a coleman setting in the back of a old pickup truck and they will offer to share with the soldiers and police officers working in their neighborhood....they have NOTHING but they want to share their coffee! It's astounding how much they appreciate what little they have and what little we can do for them!
Speaking of which, much has been said in the news about the cops down there. Even while I was there the news media was yelling about more NO officers being fired for deserting their posts and more being investigated. I don't know the facts on that score but I want to share with you a bit of what I experianced. My group was assigned to work with one of the locals (sop was to team up deployed officers with a local). During a break between shifts he took several of us to his home. His house had part of the roof missing, the windows down one side were all gone, and it was looted. He had working electrical outlets on one wall, and running water had been restored, but there was water damage throughout the house. He is staying in one room and has a bathroom...that's all! THIS IS WHERE HE LIVES...his home, his lifes work! His family was evacuated and he hasn't seen them for over a month. But he stills shows up for work every day and somehow maintains his sense of humor. He sees his fellow New Orleanians and their suffering day in and day out, helps them when he can, commiserates with them when he can't, laughs at jokes, works, and keeps trying.....only once did I see him look like he was about to cry. While in his home looking at the damage and talking about how was going to fix it he mentioned that the drawings his five year old daughter had on the refridgerator were destroyed and he could NEVER replace those. In that moment I could see the anguish in his eyes. And then he started talking about other things, the future.......These are tough cops who are full of love for each other and for their city! They will survive and New Orleans will be back and better than ever, in part because of the many cops who refused to cut & run!
Racial issues: That's another place the news media has done a disservice! There are no racial issues! Except in the minds of the few crap stirrers! But the media showcases those very ones! The truth is, there are no blacks, no whites, no Native Americans, no Hispanics....there are just people, trying to help or trying to survive! On my final night in New Orleans I was able to go "partying" in the French Quarter. ME! A big dumb white boy from up north! LOL!!! I went into one bar to get a soda (my outfit was strictly forbidden to drink alcohol while deployed) and every face in the place was black...and multiple voices cried out, "Hey Man!, can we get you a drink? You want some gumbo?...." They didn't give a damn that some "white boy" intruded on their "turf", they wanted to have fun for a little bit and wanted me to feel welcome and be part of their fun. They are just people..astonishing in many ways, but still humans wanting to share with other humans!
I could write so much more, but at the same time I realize that what I write would be totally inadaquet. Suffice it to say that I want to go back, perhaps not behind a badge next time but I DO want to go back there. I saw NO while it was beaten down....but like the Tee shirts say, "I LOVE NEW ORLEANS!!!!!"
