..I began speaking.. First, I took issue with the media’s characterization of the post-Katrina New Orleans as resembling the third world as its poor citizens clamored for a way out. I suggested that my experience...

The millions of vacationers who came here every year before Katrina were mostly unaware of this poverty. French Quarter tourists were rarely exposed to the reality beneath the Disneyland Gomorrah that is projected as ‘N’Awlins,’...

According to the 2003 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 25.8 percent of [New Orleans] population lives below the poverty line… This is more than twice the national average, but is close tot he percentages...

..I met two young guys from the Oregon National Guard… The lieutenant told me about their temporary barracks in an old neighborhood high school. He told me that he was disgusted that kids ever went...

If people are troubled by their view, they ought to offer these New Orleanians, and black and poor people in the places like the Lower Ninth Ward around the country, a reason to believe otherwise.