Katrina Anniversary Still Black Eye on New Orleans’ Julia Reed
Julia Reed story of living through New Orleans after Katrina reminds Mobile folks along coastal Alabama how painful it was here and worse there (dogs eating humans so often they were in surprising good health). The Newsweek and Vogue writer tells a great but sad truth that New Orleans is crazier than Mobile, born as a world leader for American food and music, and was dysfunctional before, and still after, Katrina hit August 29. For students considering the city as an exciting place with a heroic gesture toward recovery while attending Tulane, still turn away from the lure knowing that government corruption and eccentric politicians is criminal fraud, not petty theft, and they crumble the grand city just as Katrina did, failing government, failing levy systems, failing recovery. Ray Nagin and the governor and the government all failed New Orleans and America. As this excellent book THE HOUSE ON FIRST STREET points out, a very good meal and several bloody mary drinks each day make a beautiful southern life, while Rome burns.