New Orleans

 

The new Mayor ( thee rightful aspiring change agent) and all elected officials will live under a social microscope of a renewed citizen vigil. The new and old-new public officials will be held to a much higher standard than any past public servant has probably ever witnessed.

If New Orleans becomes a bland homogenized city, it will not be because 'of' the hundreds of thousands of absent exiled evacuees, who happen to be the historic impassioned pounding heart beat of the city. Homogenization will happen because the exiled evacuees are forced to be absent from their beloved New Orleans. At least for now and maybe forever.

If one whole life was intertwined in generations of people, in one spot, then disintegrated in a matter of hours and days, would one want to go back? Or, would one want to stay away - physically away from the old memories. Tuck them carefully into a dark corner of the mind and dust them off conveniently for select family members, to share with blood generations to come.

If a broken heart and a broken spirit keep taking hits from negative external forces, the wounds can't heal. The scars of the past, will grow thick and may be visible to the eye of an unsuspecting passer-by, when up close and personal. I wonder if I will be able to tell who 'Is' A-New Orleanian or who 'Was' a New Orleanian, in my daily life, from this day forward.

The elections, no matter the outcome, will have to bring closure for many. Justice being blind, it can't be denied, people who want to live in their beloved city again, will have to fight tooth and nail to get back firstly. People who want to lay rest the painful past and start fresh somewhere else, will do so. It doesn't equate to winning or losing, its just the way it is, its life.

"Blind my neighbors eyes from my person and my voice will rise louder,

Silence my painful anguish and my fists will pound harder,

Bind my weakened wrists and you have conquered me...For now, not forever"

by, Anonymous

Link to The Washington Post - Voters Decide New Orleans Fate...