CONGRATULATIONS Mayor Nagin!!!

 

New Orleans 'Is' headed in the right direction with the incumbent mayor. The two left standing after an amazing showdown leading to the New Orleans primary in May, is anything but smooth. Both candidates cannot rest on their laurels when there are hundreds of thousands of exiled evacuees still stranded outside of their beloved New Orleans.

Analysts seem to think that Mayor Nagin will be hard pressed to make it to another term. Analysts are not fortune tellers, so I put little stock in their predictions, they only have skewed visible data to work with. Besides they were completely off base on their predictions of who Minnesota's next Governor (another maverick) would be, many years back.

The exiled citizens are not hard data, they are living breathing thinking people, struggling day to day in silent dignity. Those that tried to get an absentee ballot, those that tried to send an absentee ballot and 'yes,' those that were denied the right to vote and turned away at the poll, all have something in common. They are the generational heart beat of the city, the soul of the 'Big Easy.'

There are evacuees that either couldn't make their way to retrieve ballots or didn't even know when the election would be, they never received a packet of information, but then again these are people who are moving around or are facing eviction from their temporary shelter because of FEMA.

The silent citizen voter is out there across the nation. The Mayor will, I'm sure, reach out to the exiled evacuee citizen, as he has done countless times already. And that had everything to do with his caring about the people he serves. It is even more critical he maintains a personal connection, by going to the countless places where evacuees reside.

He must go to the people, to keep the fire lit and warm the hearts of many, who with separation from their home the past 8 months, have been deprived of their life's blood. Mayor Nagin is still the mayor and there is no doubt about his responsibility to New Orleans. His track record as a person and as the mayor speak volumes...He can help New Orleans go forward because he is linked with the people, not stepping up on them.

Link to The Times Picayune and the other stories around the nation...Life of the Exiled Citizen Evacuee...Surviving...

Link to The Washington Post to read about how the two mayoral candidates wish to proceed...

WHO TV Des Moines

NewStand

Seattle PI

Macon Telegraph

Portville Recorder

The Boston Globe

Albuquerque