My beloved New Orleans, one year after

As we reach the first anniversary of my home state's own personal 9/11, there are all the usual and expected commemorative activities. The TV and print media load up on retrospectives (though I hear Spike Lee's four-hour HBO opus on the Ninth Ward is worth seeing); Junior pays a visit to try and convince people that his regime has made up for its initial (lack of) response to the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, among other public ceremonies; the inexplicably re-elected Mayor of New Orleans continues to, as we say in Cajun country, "let his alligator mouth overload his hummingbird ass"; and the people of the Crescent City and Gulf Coast continue to slog through the years-long process of rebuilding (that is, those that haven't simply said "tahellwiddit" and moved elsewhere for good). But of all the words that have been printed on paper and transmitted via electrons to mark this grim occasion, fittingly, none I've seen possess as much eloquence or hope as those of Chris Rose, a columnist for the New Orleans daily, The Times-Picayune, who has lived in the heart of the despair and the determination and now reports on it. Read what he has to say here and see why, this morning, I am proud to be a native-born Louisianan and a former New Orleanian. While you're there, be sure to check out this amazing slideshow by the Teep's photogs that graphically shows where progress has been made...and where it hasn't.