HANG IN THERE GULF COAST! HALLELUIA...HELP IS FINALLY ON THE WAY!

...CAN I HEAR AN "AMEN?"

Well, it seems that we finally have a President that cares about the plight of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Halleluia!

This article from NOLA.COM, Obama gives hope to Katrina activists, tells the whole glorious story of how everything is gonna be just fine now that a "brother" is in charge of things. The Ninth Ward, and really everybody anxious to get back home to the cesspool that was/is New Orleans ought to be packing their bags and making travel plans...y'all are comin' home soon!

The whole article is worth a read, but here is a sample of what some activists are saying:

Monique Harden: "All of us who have been shut out for the last eight years because we're interested in social justice and environmental protection and poverty and schools, all of us who have been locked out are now included in this conversation, " Harden said. "They were asking real questions: 'What do you want? What do you see?' "

Aaron Viles: "You'd have to be a fool not to think that things will be better with President Obama for the Gulf Coast, " said Aaron Viles, campaign director of the Gulf Restoration Network in New Orleans. "We're in a different era now. All the things they tell you in grade school about what a great country this is, this maybe bears that out."

Derrick Evans (Gulfport, MS): "Each of our regions are the cash-cow stepchildren" of their states, Evans said; the places from which resources are extracted at great damage to their fragile wetlands, the places that bear the brunt of one storm after another.

Pam Dashiell: "It's a new day, " said Dashiell, who also was on the Mall Tuesday. "I think the people of the Gulf Coast are going to see a new way of doing things."

Beverly Wright:

Beverly Wright, director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University, said her neighborhood in eastern New Orleans also was endangered.

"They wanted to make where I live green space, " said Wright, who views the move as part of a pattern. Whether it's the demolition of public housing or the decimation of the New Orleans teachers union -- a bulwark of the black middle class -- the aim, she said, was to discourage black people from coming home.

Shana Griffin:

"I understand the symbolism of Obama, " Griffin said. "I do feel that Obama is open to change, with his organizing background, he is open to pressure from grassroots organizing and social movements."

But, she said, "He needs a protest. He also needs to be rooted in reality. He's the savior right now."

Well Halleluia!!! Folks, I wouldn't get my hopes up for much change. This is the government you are looking to for help...yea, that government that served you so well for the last 50 years...yea, that government that screwed up your schools, and neighborhoods in the first place, and then drowned them.

Personally, I don't know why any sane person would want to rebuild that hell hole called New Orleans anyway. But for those of you that do...the pace of rebuilding under an Obama administration as opposed to the speed under the Bush administration is gonna look kinda like this...