Katrina, two years on

[thatcrazycajun]

On this day precisely two years ago, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Its aftermath included the flooding of my beloved home city, New Orleans, the Dante's Inferno-like travails of refugees at the Convention Center and the Superdome, the eradication of most of St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward, the complete obliteration of towns on the shorelines of Mississippi and Alabama, and a shameful spectacle of government laziness, corruption, ineptitude and outright fraud at all levels. Parts of NOLA and the Coast are still rebuilding and depopulated, two years later. The city's indomitable spirit has risen to work wonders in some areas, but in others basic services are still missing and the land stripped bare where houses once stood.

And today the man who bears ultimate responsibility for the colossal fiasco that was federal response to the disaster has the unmitigated chutzpah to return to New Orleans, trumpeting alleged progress in which he had very little part. I could say all sorts of things, but I think this editorial cartoon says it all far more eloquently and succinctly than I ever could.

God save the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast; looks like no one else will except the locals themselves.

ADDENDUM, Wed. 8/29, 7:00 pm: In response to several complaints that the original posted link to the cartoon I wanted y'all to see did not in fact lead to that cartoon, I am doing what I should have done in the first place and embedding it right here below.

(click here to view)

John Sherffius Aug 28, 2007 EditorialCartoonists.com

Comments

Whiskey? Tango? Elipsis?

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

Huh.

Yeah, nothing like a fat joke to focus the nation's attention on what was or was not done in New Orleans....

Re: Whiskey? Tango? Elipsis?

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

You need to look at the cartoon for 8/28/07 - the link automatically goes to the current day.

Re: Whiskey? Tango? Elipsis?

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, when someone says "This link says it better than I could", and you follow that link, you expect it to lead you to the thing that was being discussed.

The responsibility to be clear and to point to the right thing falls squarely on the author, not the reader.

Re: Whiskey? Tango? Elipsis?

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I apologize to everyone for the problems with the link - it took me straight to the right cartoon, so I never knew there was a problem. I got it off the Google Gadget on my iGoogle page that posts links to new cartoons each day, and I assumed it was a link to the most current one; silly me. Mea maxima culpa.

Re: Whiskey? Tango? Elipsis?

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Yes, it links to the most current one, which changes every day. Many sites do this, on the reasonable assumption that people want to see the latest issue. It's routine with newspapers, webcomics, etc.

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

See my post: Unfortunate Aniversary to you.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

That link goes to an obviously irrelevant cartoon.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

See my reply to telynor above.

[gingicat]

You need to change the link to http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/40668/

Like Telynor, I was more than a little offended by the 8/29 cartoon - but I know you well enough to go "wait, he doesn't make fat jokes, was it a previous cartoon?"

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

See my reply above; the link to the cartoon I had intended y'all to see got cocked-up somehow or other.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Yup, and I was about to be the (third?) to send the correct link. Why not edit it into the original post, with a "[Correction]" note if you like? That would have... assorted benefits.

And goddam LJ has f...ed up my icon AGAIN, but it looks like this one will be appropriate to the problem so I'll leave it there. That is, the dropdown menu indicates that my "headbang" icon will be used instead of the default picture of Loiosh, my dragon familiar.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion; if you look above, you will see it has been implemented. Apologies to you as well for the problems.