Golden Winters

Golden Winters writes:

....Hurricane Katrina...

We bore witness to the abandonment of our people. Lives were decimated by the spoils of war as broken hearts, broken dreams and generations of memories lay in ruin and our people crossed over in sweeping numbers.

The city is still on a sluggish road to recovery. There is a slow transition from something old and rich to something new and unfamiliar. In 2005, the wards from New Orleans East to St. Bernard Parish, Gert Town, Gently, Up Town, Central City, Bayou St. John, West Bank, the Point, Magnolia and Laffitte Housing were flowing with the spirit of a people. Jazz, red beans & rice, crawfish boils, second lines, brass bands, and Zydeco added value to the communities.

After Katrina, I returned five times to New Orleans with Cincinnati Hurricane Relief Project to gut homes now designated to become the property of the city. While traveling over Lake Pontchartrain to and from New Orleans, there was not a bird in sight and no sounds of the outdoors and nature. Pinkish gray vapors layered the sky. You could see and feel the lingering, quiet desperation.

But we are a proud people.