Ballad to the Big Easy
The time has come, child, to write of the Deep South, where cotton was king and hot nights are full of dark deeds.We watched New Orleans with bated breath and prayers of hope as Katrina made her way to the Big Easy. Just another Mardis Gras, just another storm - weathered with bourbon and the sweet sounds of a saxophone wailing as the water rose and the levees began to fail. And in the thick of the storm, we watched you, New Orleans.We prayed as Katrina danced the delta blues through the streets of the Big Easy, as the water came crashing down. And when the dance was finished, there were no more southern belles, only those who couldn't dance their way home when the levees began to break. And in the aftermath, we prayed for you, New Orleans.We waited as Katrina broke upon the Gulf, a headstrong girl trampling over the Big Easy. The best of human nature was eclipsed by the worst - disease rising in floods like the floods that ruined your streets. The waste and tragedy swept out into the Gulf, when the levees finally broke. And we waited to send help to New Orleans.We mourned once Katrina had packed her bags, but there was no relief for the Big Easy. War refugees in a country at peace as the bullets flew and the cries for help died like so many people trapped in New Orleans. Grab your carpetbags to reconstruct the new antebellum South, on the brink of yet another storm as the levees failed. We mourned as our people drowned in New Orleans.Just another storm, just another Mardi Gras.Apathy sealed the fate of New Orleans.The time has come, child, to weep for the Deep South.What can I say about Katrina that hasn't already been said. I only wish there was an explanation. An entire region has been dispossessed and our government did nothing to help. America is so quick to respond to the need of foreign nations - with or without just cause - and yet it abandons its own people to suffer when their need is greatest. This is a wound which will fester in the hearts of Americans for a long time.