Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans and the Reverend Jesse Jackson led hundreds of marchers to the crumbling houses that dominate the Lower 9th Ward. The march was to draw attention to the area's slow recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
The mayor, whose leadership since the storm has been questioned by many residents of the area. Nagin, indicated that problems with New Orlean's recovery stem from the slow flow of government aid.
Nagin said" This march is important because it basically sends a message to the nation that people in New Orleans are still here,we're still fighting for our land. We're fighting for our recovery. We want the resources to flow much faster."
Jackson felt the Bush administration and much of the nation had largely forgotten the working class and mostly black hurricane victims in the Lower 9th Ward. Areas that draw tourists and more affluent sections recover more quickly but what about other areas of the city that people visit when they come to visit friends and relatives?
We should not look over the victims who are still suffering from the Katrina Hurricane but yet try to console and offer ways or words of closure to the horrible memories of the disaster.
"The waters have subsided, but the abandonment continues. The president did not mention Katrina in his last State of the Union address," Jackson said. The Saints, the city's professional football team, and the Mardi Gras have returned, "the people are not back," he said.
A few hundred people walking with Jackson and Nagin marched about 10 abreast over the Claiborne Avenue bridge that arcs into the Lower 9th, stopping near the site of the levee breach that allowed in the storm surge flood that destroyed homes and took lives there in August 2005.
