Kirk Watson: “yes, New Orleans is worth saving and rebuilding. It is one of the most American cities, for it represents how diversity…”

“yes, New Orleans is worth saving and rebuilding. It is one of the most American cities, for it represents how diversity comes together in harmony and blends into our music, our foods, our culture, and our Americanism. Response to this disaster was a miserable failure. Americans died, Americans went hungry, Americans were living for days without water and without health services. You can live without food for 7 days, but you cannot live without water. Our health services were dysfunctional. We must admit, we failed at protecting our American citizens in our own homeland. We as Congress must rise to the occasion. We have American citizens suffering and cannot get immediate help to them. Medics always take our wounded off the battlefields. Our social contract says trust us and we will deliver in your time of need. This is America's Gulf War. One-half million people have been uprooted. Millions of people in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, have been affected. 150,000 of the displaced live below the poverty line, and 50,000 of them are post-retirement age. So what are we doing about it? What am I doing about it? I have called my State government, I have called my board of education, I have called my local representatives to ask them to do a displacement absorption plan; invite them to California, invite them to Los Angeles. Share your housing with a family.…”