An Open Letter

NO THANK YOU, MAYOR NAGIN
Or should we say Thank You?

Dear Mr. Mayor:

Your Executive Order to grant a landfill near the Vietnamese community is a betrayal of your promise to bring every community back to New Orleans. We were one of the very first communities in New Orleans East to be back rebuilding and continuing to struggle with trying to bring a sense of normalcy back into our lives. Our church, shops, and restaurants are all open. Where in N.O. East is the most vibrant besides Home Depot? And what do we get for bringing 85 percent of the homeowners in our neighborhood back? You decided to derail that progress by dropping a bombshell on us through your despicable act.

Mr. Nagin, by ignoring the City Council and our representatives, you have decided that a major landfill within one mile of our homes is justified. You hesitated on many life or death decisions Pre-Katrina and then blame everyone else under the sun. However, Post-Katrina, you have no problem with making a choice for our lives and communities without even giving us a chance to express our concerns. God is not upset at us and you Sir are not God. What a betrayal of the people who supported your Mayoral Campaign in 2002. No thank you, Mayor Nagin.

We are only the numerous small businesses that operate in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes. We are only the Valedictorians and Salutatorians of many schools year after year in New Orleans. We are only the victims of senseless crime in this city with no protest that you see in print or television. We mourned and we moved on, too busy surviving to participate in the political environment. We see how government work in the city, how crime runs rampant, and failing schools; but we overcome and ignored it. We have been refugees, been through wars, worked 15 hours a day, died on boats, faced racism, you name it. But we were Silent.

Thank You, Mr. Nagin for waking a Sleeping Giant and we hope that you will have a lot of time to work on your book deal after April 22nd.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Class Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.