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An editorial: It's time for a nation to return the favor


NCB

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The sad fact of the matter is we have a federal govenment controlled by a political party that has no interest in spending on the public sector. Instead they wish to cut spending so that corporations and individuals can continue to enrich themselves at the public's expense. And since we are being hopelessly bankrupted by Iraq, there is no money now even if they did want to do anything positive about NO. What is happening is what I said months ago. Once NO comes off the front pages of the press and media, the Feds will drop the ball and it appears that is what is going to happen.

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A typical homegrown opinion piece. "You (the nation) OWE us...and here's why (reaching for examples)"

Pfft. What N.O. has offered our nation is worth the billions upon billions of dollars that you & I will pay? Hardly. Our money would be better spent moving the city, and leaving behind a shipping port with a small city to support it. Heck, many N.O. inhabitants have stated they will call cities like Baton Rouge & Houston home from now on. Cities that don't require levees, so relocating N.O. may not even really be necessary.

This may sound cold & harsh, but like the T-P opinion piece, this is my opinion.

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The truth hurts. Can't expect everyone to agree with this. It's easier to cut bait and run than to make a commitment and fix the problem.

The city's fate was sealed by:

1) A federal government agency whose incompetence and engineering mistakes cost hundreds of people their lives.

2) A country that consumed the energy produced and processed by this small corner of the world... an area that has been sliced and diced by the oil companies trying to access oil and gas reserves.

The bottom line is, there ARE solutions to this situation. How can anyone, in their right mind, question the merits of saving an American city? How can anyone, in their right mind, make judgements on the viability of the future of New Orleans, based on a disaster that breached a protection system that ALL experts say was INNADEQUATE? How can anyone, in their right mind, write a city off as done when the federal government, thus far, has only committed to cat 3 protection. There are 5 catergories in the Safir-Simpson scale, ya know.

There are people who are often willing to ruin relationships, both family and personal, over something as trivial as money. I guess those same people have no problem with letting an American city be reclaimed by the sea... to save a little money. I challenge anyone to question the importance of my city to this country.

There's a reason why, throughout our history, many countries have fought, many have died, to control this city. Believe me, it isn't for our food or music.

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I think the article's confrontational stance is a bit out of line, I don't think the nation OWES New Orleans per se. I do think we should help rebuild it as we should any part of our country in similar circumstances and we should reinforce it to help prevent a recurrence. I don't mind my tax dollars going to this. I think the federal gov't should've been floating NO's city government, it's absurd that their employees had to be laid off.

I don't think the government can afford to rebuild NO from scratch, though. I think parts of the city will never be rebuilt and many of the city's residents will choose to live elsewhere. It's hard to plan for this sort of thing and know which parts will be revived and which won't.

I do think the gov't should offer tremendous financial incentives for companies to keep or relocate jobs there. Otherwise, we have a mass of wasted infrastructure and all of this money being spent is useless.

I still hope for a smaller but cleaner and more upscale New Orleans a decade from now, one with far more of a white collar presence than the city's ever had. That's the image I see, at least.

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One thing that must be said, and hasn't been said enough... to put minds at ease all accross this country is that the money that we, as a city and state, are requesting... is just our fair share of the oil and gas revenues generated directly by our state. As it stands, we get less than 1% of revenue. Some states get as much as 50% of oil and gas revenue produced in their state. That would mean a recurring revenue of approximately $2.5 billion per year. That figure would more than double in 15-20 years, meaning tens of billions of dollars for us to pay our own way out of this disaster. This money could be bonded out and provide a lump sum to build world-class levees and provide much needed economic incentives, with minimal investment or sacrafices by nationwide taxpayers.

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The same people who, until recently, were saying we could start a liberal democracy in Iraq are the same ones saying that New Orleans is not worth rebuilding. I don't blame the Times Picayune staff for being utterly ticked off. The anger is justified, when a historically and culturally central city in your own country is seen as hardly worth saving, whilst we continue spending billions over there.

It might seem like I'm getting too political here, but the issues here are impossibly political. This sort of thing gets to the heart of what politics are all about. And what's happening to New Orleans is breaking my heart.

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I might add that the plight of the Mississippi Coast is miserable as well. Somehow it seems that people simply think that the casino companies are going to magically rebuild everything. It won't happen that way and the government needs to step up to the plate and deliver. I don't think people are simply sitting back and asking for a huge handout. The job is simply too big to be done with private investment.

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I might add that the plight of the Mississippi Coast is miserable as well. Somehow it seems that people simply think that the casino companies are going to magically rebuild everything. It won't happen that way and the government needs to step up to the plate and deliver. I don't think people are simply sitting back and asking for a huge handout. The job is simply too big to be done with private investment.

Yea, the Mississippi Coast is getting even less attention from the government, in terms of funds, than New Orleans.

Now, Lake Charles is having a major problem. There has been significant job loss there since Hurricane Rita, and they have very little funds for rebuilding damaged areas of their city, and...almost no money at all is headed there way anytime soom.

The feeling that I get when I think about what is happening to my hometown, this part of my state, and the entire gulf coast region that surrounds me, I get a really sick feeling. :sick:

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It seems easy for many to forget that Rita was one of the strongest storms ever, as the media almost seems to portray it as a little thunderstorm that rolled ashore.

A twenty mile variance of the epicenter can make all of the difference in the world. Were Katrina 20 miles further East and Rita 20 miles West, we'd be talking a whole other scenario. I can't count the number of times Key West was 20 miles away from destruction.

That last one to hit Florida was a doozy, though. It did so much widespread damage and did so on the opposite coast from where it hit, it was really an unusual storm. It hit Naples head on and Naples handled things well but nearly all of the Miami-Ft Lauderdale-WPB metro was without power and traffic lights took weeks to bring back.

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I learned in school that Louisiana have more natural resources per capital than any other state in the nation.

Could the wise allocation make Louisiana the next great state?

It's really innexcusable that we aren't already. We are very rich with oil... more per capita than any other state. We should be the most prosperous state in the country. But, you can point to politics for the answer to that one. In my opinion, it started with Huey Long, the worst governor in the history of this country... with his "every man a king" communist-like ideals. His extended stay in power, even after he was governor, created an atmosphere of dependence on state government. This dependence on state government made it easy for politicians to rob us blind. As a result, we never prospered. Our social entitlement programs are among the worst in the country. With a state of 4.5 million people, we have an $18 billion state budget. Mississippi, for example, with a population of 2.5 million, has a $5.5 billion state budget. We aren't holding our state-level politicians accountable. Until that happens, we'll never be a great state as far as economic development and opportunities for our citizens.

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My, that's a bit--no, completely--ridiculous. And Mississippi has a greater tax effort in re to per capita income than either Alabama or Louisiana. Plenty of states have larger budgets than Louisiana, which is especially and traditionally chintzy in areas such as social welfare and health care spending.

It's really innexcusable that we aren't already. We are very rich with oil... more per capita than any other state. We should be the most prosperous state in the country. But, you can point to politics for the answer to that one. In my opinion, it started with Huey Long, the worst governor in the history of this country... with his "every man a king" communist-like ideals. His extended stay in power, even after he was governor, created an atmosphere of dependence on state government. This dependence on state government made it easy for politicians to rob us blind. As a result, we never prospered. Our social entitlement programs are among the worst in the country. With a state of 4.5 million people, we have an $18 billion state budget. Mississippi, for example, with a population of 2.5 million, has a $5.5 billion state budget. We aren't holding our state-level politicians accountable. Until that happens, we'll never be a great state as far as economic development and opportunities for our citizens.
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