Thanks to fellow “Internet Kook” and real free-lance journalist, Emily Metzgar we get the following taste of how we in LA are viewed by others. From the Minneapolis newspaper, via the Associated Press as posted on the New York Times website we found the following editorial commentary from August 29, 2006:
“Americans remember watching in helpless horror as Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the Gulf Coast one year ago.
The numerous failures of local, state and federal agencies in Louisiana have been well-documented. Today, those failures are compounded by a continued poor response to victims’ needs and by the lack of a comprehensive plan to rebuild New Orleans. … it certainly doesn’t help that efforts are so bogged down in political maneuvering and evident incompetence.
… New Orleans’ history of corruption, power struggles with other units of government, raucous and racial politics, bad schools and high crime arguably made it one of the most-troubled, least-livable cities in the nation.
Today, citizens there must not let those same old problems hinder recovery. City leaders must make the case to get over deep-rooted suspicions, develop a plan and rally residents around a vision for the city.”
As has been pointed out by me, ad nauseam, LA continues to rank at the bottom of all the positive lists in comparison to the other states and at the top of all the negative lists. We can sit and pout about how unfairly LA is treated, but we can’t kill all the messengers. It is immaterial that it is all perception. Perception by the entire country is reality. Sooner or later, we must address the problems that everyone sees, but us.
In the final analysis, the only people we are fooling are ourselves. Perhaps we need a rush shipment of mirrors to replace those broken by the aftermath of Katrina so that we can clearly see the problem.
It’s time to demand that immediate problems like high and punitive taxes, un-affordable insurance, bureaucratic red tape, public corruption and an attitude that it is more important who one knows as opposed to what is right and wrong and lawful, be addressed. Until those matters are not only addressed, but fixed, we don’t have enough bullets to kill all the messengers.
We continue to elect the same people to public office, but expect positive change. That’s insanity!
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