do you know what it means to miss new orleans?

When St. Louis was hit by a bad thunderstorm last summer, I didn't have power for a week. I was miserable. It was hot as hell out and barely anything was open because they didn't have power either. My partner had to drive 30 minutes to get ice. I was struck by the lack of empathy of those around me, who were lucky enough to have power. "So what? You didn't have air conditioning as a kid, did you? You survived then!" People failed to remember that not having electricity affects the ability to have a lot of other things... like a fan, a fridge, an alarm clock, a radio, a tv.... you get the picture.

When Katrina hit New Orleans, no one had any idea the impact it would have immediately or long term... and a lot of people have no idea, two years later, the impact it had on people's homes, lives, livelihood. After the storm, people had climbed up to their attic, hoping to be saved and died of the heat while waiting if they didn't drown. People did not have electricity for seven months.... if not more. People's lives were ruined, they lost everything they owned, their friends and family members were scattered all over the country, and insurance companies refused to help (because people had hurricane insurance and not flood insurance, and obviously, the damage was caused by a flood and not a hurricane). And our government failed to help...

and so did you and I.

I talked to a woman last week who went down to New Orleans for the two year anniversary - she talked to lots of folks who were working on their houses and they'd come home one day to find their house had been bulldozed with no notification.... this is after all of their belongings had sat in 12 feet of water and they spent almost two years trying to prove to the bureaucracy that they owned the property.

Sadly, I've never been to New Orleans but hopefully that will change. We just finished watching Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke". Please, if you haven't seen it already, go rent it.

We also ran across a short video that was in the 7th Annual Media That Matters Film Festival called "Still Standing", a youth produced doc you can watch with one woman's story - there's a longer version that can be ordered, with more stories.

This is the stuff that matters.