New Orleans four years after Katrina

Last year, just before the third anniversary of Katrina, President Bush visited Jackson Barracks, where a 200 million dollar renovation was well under way in the Lower 9th Ward, and reaffirmed his promises: “Together, we are working to make sure that New Orleans comes back - even stronger, safer, and more vibrant than it was before the storm.” He acknowledged more work needed to be done with the tone of a cheerleader, not a world leader. Bush's first view of the devastation after the storm was from the windows of Air Force One. I wonder which neighborhoods he toured before giving his rah-rah speech. Did he see what I was seeing?
A year later as Katrina’s 4th anniversary approaches, a headline in the local paper, the Times Picayuane, reads, “Obama keeps close tabs on New Orleans recovery -- from a distance.” I wonder what these "close tabs" are. Can one know the situation without seeing it for oneself? Block after block of abandoned destroyed homes, a city with the nation's highest murder rate, and many other substantial problems with no plan in place to solve them.
This anniversary, Mayor Nagin's focus won't be remembering the dead. He has said it is time to move on from mourning. Nagin plans to highlight some of the progress made under his administration while his staff scrambles to protect themselves against lawsuits and Federal investigations. The Feds are looking into numerous acts of wrongdoing going up the ladder to Nagin himself.
The 4th anniversary of Katrina is a good time to ask why New Orleans recovery is so far from complete. Ivan Van Heerden, a former professor at LA State University, stated, “If we had the will and one month’s money we spend in Iraq, we could do all the levees and restore the coast.” Many neighborhoods have not recovered much at all, others are threatened by levees that still do not offer protection against a Category 4 storm. While 130,000 troops and countless private contractors remain on stand-by in Iraq in case Iraq proves unable to handle its own security, and while we expand the battlefield in Afghanistan, much of New Orleans resembles a war-torn Third World country.

I have been following the progress of Brad Pitt’s “Make it Right” housing project in the lower 9th Ward since 2007. Currently there are fifteen completed homes and another 150 to be built. I met one of the residents, Lloyd Griffin and interviewed him. Here is a link to a video interview of him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia19Wodq_sc
To see more images of a photo series on New Orleans right before the 4 years anniversary of Katrina check out this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliedermansky/sets/72157621951982065/

To New Orleans on Katrina’s Anniversary, may the healing process speed up.

In Honor of Primo, a New Orleans Police Dog

Today in New Orleans there was a memorial for Primo, a police dog who died on May 27th. He was left in a vehicle by his handler on an 88 degree day; he ripped the interior of the vehicle up, struggling to get out. The dog suffered a number of seizures, and heat shock. Primo’s temperature was 109.8 before he died. Primo’s handler has been transferred out of the K-9 unit. This is the third K-9 death in New Orleans this year. Now all three are under investigation. Here is a link to the story that has images of the car's interior from the Times Picayune ( warning disturbing images): http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/heat_killed_police_dog_left_in.html

In Primo's honor I'm posting another story from Iraq on other service dogs.

To see a video dispatch Phin Percy Jr. and I created with John Snell for Fox 8, New Orleans click here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYXRzFwXI9c

On March 5, 2009, on Camp Victory I met bomb-sniffing dog Rain, and his handler Corporal Perkins. Perkins had Rain run through the training course before bringing out the rest of the training dogs and their handlers. The dogs are trained to find IEDs (improvised explosive devices) without setting them off. Still, setting them off remains a threat to both the dog and the handler, as do snipers who try to eliminate them while they are on the job. Rain found 17 IEDs on his first deployment in Afghanistan. His work has saved countless lives.

The unit lost one team in Iraq. Seargant Cooper, another canine, and Corporal Wiens, his handler were killed by an IED on July 6, 2007. Copper's kennel was turned into a shrine. Cooper’s collar and Wien’s backpack, sit on top of the empty kennel, a reminder of the dangers the unit faces

Arlington West on Father’s Day

"I thought the war in Iraq was over," I overheard someone say as I approached Arlington West on Father’s Day. With close to 140,000 troops still in Iraq and violence on the rise, the war is hardly over. Things are getting more unstable daily as the June 30th deadline for American troops to stop patrolling the cities and remain on their bases approaches.

It has been close to a year since I last visited Arlington West.  The memorial makes me feel an intense sense of loss every time I visit. The sea of crosses makes the number of dead palpable. My visits to the memorial gave me the inspiration to go to Iraq and learn about the war firsthand. Returning, little has changed except for the memorial's scale. It takes all morning to fully set the memorial up. I recognize most of the volunteers, a core group that shows up every Sunday. Long tape measures are laid out, the crosses staked into the sand, and personal mementos and name cards are added before the symbolic coffins are carried out.

The death toll in Iraq for the week was three. In Afghanistan, it was seven. The last death totals  posted at the memorial: 4315 in Iraq and 711 in Afghanistan, as of last weekend.

I met CLP (combat logistics patrol) Stephen Johnson who found his friend's name on the list of the fallen. He didn’t know about Arlington West and stumbled upon the memorial by chance while visiting Santa Monica. I spotted him as he fondled his dog tags  while looking for a friend’s name on a panel with names of the dead. He was moved to tears as he made a card identifying his friend for one of the crosses. Their Humvee was hit with an IED while they were on a patrol in Sadr City in 2006. Stephen is permanently disabled, both his arm and brain damaged. In California, Stephen told me, vets can get medical marijuana for pain, much better than the pharmaceuticals that he was first offered by doctors. He moved to Long Beach from New Orleans. The war isn’t over for him.

In recent headlines, the governor of South Carolina confessed his extra-marital affair. Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died and there is still unrest on the streets of Iran. The new totals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan is hardly considered breaking news, but they will be posted at Arlington West this Sunday. 

Memorial Day in my hometown

Englewood NJ, my hometown, has an annual Memorial Day Parade. My father used to participate in the parade, riding up Palisade Avenue in his candy red Lincoln Continental convertible. The parade still features convertibles. This year there was a hearse too,

 from Eternity Funeral Home, advertising their services while honoring the troops at the same time.

I met World War Two veteran Joseph Austin and his wife Claire who were locating the names of his friends etched on the Liberty Plaza Memorial

 across from the Palisade Avenue Memorial. Both felt the speeches before the parade should have mentioned the Memorial so people who came out for the parade would take notice and honor the dead. The Memorial has the names of all local soldiers who lost their lives in all the wars America has participated in.

It is easy to forget what Memorial Day is about, with barbecues, shopping and parades with marching bands, dancing girls and beauty queens, unless you are unlucky enough to lose someone in a war. President Obama went to Arlington Cemetery today where he honored the dead and thanked those serving in the military. He laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There were many visitors in Section 60, the area for those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is know as the “saddest acre in America." I fear Section 60 will continue to grow despite Obama’s dream of world peace.

Iraqi police will be taking over the security of Iraq though many fear they are not ready

Hillary Clinton told the press during her visit to Iraq at the end of April: that the recent upsurge in sectarian violence is a major concern. It is a few terrorists making their last hurrah, as America gets ready to turn the baton of security over to the Iraqis. She is confident, she said, that all will be well. The MPs I have been talking to aren’t as confident and neither am I.

The last five days I have been at FOB (forward operating base) Shield, embedded with the 39th Louisiana National Guard MPs, checking on the progress of their mission. They were tasked as a PTT, police training transition team. While accompanying them to an Iraqi police station in Sadr City, two bombs went off in the sector. Time will tell if the Iraqis are ready to handle their own security or not.

I'm headed back to America. The first leg of my journey back starts the morning of the 9th- with a book and a film in the works on my time in Iraq. Check back for more images and a link to the final story on fox 8 in New Orleans.

Images top: Iraqi police bike with fake flowers / Sgt. Prince putting on her kevlar/MP's stop at check point in Sadr City
Bottom: CL. Jamal at his desk / Preachrd at check point/Car that had car bomb in it which only partially detonated/Al Jazaeer Police Station/Iraqi tank painted with flowers at check point/NaquinNaquin in police commander's office / MP checks for snipers as Phin Percy films on roof of police station /Fake flowers - landscaping at Iraqi police station/Smith takes down numbers of supplies in weapons room at Iraqi police station via flashlight since the station has no power/Craft cleans his nails with knife in commander's office at Iraqi police station