Letters from New Orleans

By Nicholas Stix I received this letter from a resident of the New Orleans area on the night of September 11, in response to my column, “New Orleans, and the Hurricane Next Time.” “Dear Mr. Stix: “Truly profound. I am a long time resident of New Orleans actually Terrytown which is right across the river from New Orleans. Once a wonderful place to live, the last 25-30 years New Orleans has become an increasingly dangerous place to live. You have no idea how disappointing that is. “How our local politicians didn't expect the aftermath of Katrina is beyond me. These are the people that are supposed to be in touch with the city and its people. “My disappointment lies in that we (my boyfriend and I) prepared for the hurricane and because my boyfriend was in Andrew several years before knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would be looting and it would be terrible because our beautiful city plunged in to such disarray for the last several decades. He was approached while sleeping in a tent by someone trying to loot our home. Thankfully, there was a dog that adopted him and dog gave him just enough time to retreive his side arm and cock the hammer, only then did the potential intruder back off. It scares me to death that he could have lost his life because some stupid individual wanted what we had. “I just don't understand the mentality of people that live off the system their entire lives and then bitch because the system didn't provide them with the resources to get out of the city. What is really screwed up is that the people that were evacuated to the Astrodome and other shelters were given money by Red Cross & FEMA and told the rest of the evacuees that they would have to wait for any help if any was going to be given. When New Orleans is rebuilt and it will be, these same people will have their hands out so they can return to the Crescent City, we don't want them, do you? “You may be asking the point to my email. I am tired, especially in New Orleans, of people with their hands out all of the time. I don't expect the Federal, State or even City government to bail me out of my situation. Why should we continually support people that won't do anything for themselves??? And why are they so angry with white people? “Sincerely, “(Name deleted)” Then, on the morning of September 12, I received the following letter from a New Orleans resident, in response to my column, Questions That May Not be Asked about New Orleans.” (The only change I made in the letter below was to break it up into paragraphs; as sent to me, it was only broken into two paragraphs, and might make readers go blind. And I want people to read it.) “Dear Mr. Stix, I wanted to thank you for your article. It said everything my family and I have been trying to say. You see, sir, I am a New Orleans Refugee, that's right a refugee. My family and I watched the hurricane updates and moved to higher ground. We are not offended to be called refugees. ”We are staying with family in another part of the state. The hurricane hit on Monday, on Tuesday the parish that we are staying in announced that it would take "displaced students" into it's schools. On Wed, we had our children enrolled in local schools. On Tues, my husband notified his company, Halliburton, that we needed to relocate. They set up a temporary place for him to work in Lafayette. He drives an hour and an half both ways every day to work. That's right, Work! 3 hours every day, just to work! My elderly mother-in-law had to be evacuated with us. Therefore, I get the kids to school, took care of her and seek work in the area. “We have driven home 3 times to check out the damage, secure what we can and obtain items that we need. It takes 8-10 hours every time. But we want to make sure that our home is taken care of until we can get there to fix it. That's right, we plan on doing it ourselves with the insurance money. Yes, we have homeowners and flood. You see sir, we live in an area where hurricanes can at hit at any time. Therefore, we must take care of ourselves. We do not plan on waiting for the government or city to fix it. It is our responsibility to make sure that we have a home, work and that our children are educated. “But I want to make one thing perfectly clear. We live paycheck to paycheck. My husband has been with Halliburton for 32 years. I am a nurse, I work full time and take call. We have three children. We have provided them with private school education because they do not know how to use guns and would get eaten alive in our public school system. Also, we have friends that have graduated in our public school system and can't read. We have a 19 year old in college, a 15 year old in the 9th grade and a 13 year old in the 7th grade. “Yes, we live paycheck to paycheck. But we do not expect anyone else to provide us with the things that we need. We provide ourselves and children with health insurance. We pay for their braces and eyeglasses. You see sir, we work for these things. Our biggest hope is that our children will realize this and work for things that they need and desire. We vote, we take our children with us. We want them to understand that they have to be active in their community. We have them do community service work with us. All the time being blamed for the condition of our black community. Well, the true black community came through in this situation. Remember the black out in New York, thousands of people just walked out. No one shot at the crowd, no one attached rescue workers. They just moved on. I am ashamed of how my city reacted to this tradgey. But I refuse to take responsibility. My family reacted the way human beings should react. We heeded the warnings, got out and took care of ourselves. But we are white, cajun all the way through. We work for what we have. We will teach our childred to do the same. Just as our parents taught us. I am not sure what will come of our home, but I promise this, we will be a part of the rebuilding, not the destruction. Thanks for listening. And please, pray our city and all of the hurricane victims. We need it. ”Sincerely, A New Orleans REFUGEE!” That afternoon, the following letter came about the same essay. “Good questions!!. Most will not be answered. You will be labeled a racist, and the "beat will go on". Keep on trying to change the system. Democrats do not want to upset their supporters and others fear being destroyed by the liberal media and black racists like Sharpton and Jackson. “P.S. I'm a refugee (I'll use this term because of its definition) and grew up in the LOWER 9th WARD. I chose to learn something in school and rise out of the poverty of the area. Unfortunately, my mother still has a house (maybe) there. Of my entire family including hundreds of cousins, I'm one of the first to get a college degree. I'm tired of hearing about poor people. Most, by choice, do not want any other way of living unless they can steel it or are presented it by someone else!!!” Fifty minutes later, a woman sent me the following note. “Great article! “I am from New Orleans and I could answer all of these questions...but of course, I won't because they weren't asked.!” The letters reminded me of when our son was born, five years ago. We lived in a 20' X 8' room (including kitchenette and bathroom!) so tight that I once had my back pants pocket shredded by pointy, formica dresser drawers, when I squeezed between the baby's crib and the dresser, in order to get to the bed. The wiring, which was not up to code, made the place a firetrap. My wife worked part-time, while going to nursing school full time, while I took care of the baby 24/7. In other words, we didn’t have a pot to pee in. And yet, had we heard that a natural disaster was on the way, we would have grabbed the stash of cash my wife kept on hand (where only she could find it) for emergencies, wrapped up the baby, packed a couple days' changes of clothes for us, and a week's worth of baby supplies (including app. 80 Pampers), and grabbed the first train or bus out of town. It would never have occurred to us to stay, and demand that the federales come, save us, and give us money. Of course, seeing as we are only human, had the feds chased after us with fists full of money, we might well have let them catch us. Then again, unlike God, the feds only help those who refuse to take care of themselves.