Dear Mayor Nagin,You don’t know me, but I am a citizen of the city you were put in charge - though some people believe you bought the election by using civil rights leaders to pressure bussing people in after Katrina to vote - nonetheless, you were elected to lead this city long before I became a citizen, and until you are no longer in charge, it is a fact I have come to expect.  I know I don’t fit into your ideal of what a New Orleanian is, and perhaps you don’t feel like you lead me, me being one of them “Uptown Folks” and this being the “Chocolate City” and all, but I would just like to remind you, that you represent me too.And while the nation is praising you, mostly from the bits and pieces of Hurricane Gustav coverage they have seen on television, as someone who watched your press coverage in it’s entirity, heard your speeches, and watched you smirk on television, I want to tell you something. As long as you are the person that tells me to evacuate, I never will.As you spoke on Saturday evening, foreshadowing the mandetory evacuation you put into place, you spoke of  “the storm of the century” and  “This is the real deal.” You said that this was the “mother of all storms” and, looking back and no longer panic-ed, your speech was full of intellecutally dishonesty and was misleading, where you downright lied, fueling the Post Traumatic Stress of a city remembering Katrina. Instead of leading, you placed not the fear of God in people, but the fear of Katrina in people,even using the same language you used three years ago,  using that as your tool to gain a  pat-on-the-back from the national media. waitting for your “Atta-boys” and “He did it right.”  My only regret is that I fell for the frenzy caused my a leader who has proven he cannot lead.Let’s speak about the intellectual dishonesty of your press conference. First, the comparisons to Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Katrina are ridiculous. The only thing these two had in common is that they were both slated to happen in the month of August, but even Gustav gave the middle finger to that and came in September. Hurricane Gustav was not the “mother of all storms” and it was NOT “900 miles wide” This can be verified by looking at weather maps leading up to the hit of Gustav. This statement was hugely exaggerated, but who is going to care about honesty when we just heard “You have to get out now!” and “The only way to survive this storm is to get an axe for your attic.” and “This is it, this time, this is the real deal.”  Right before you gave your press conference, you stated that you had met with weather officials and these were the reports you were getting. How is it that the weather officials were giving you these reports, when watching the weather immediately before it was interrupted for your panic-fueld speech, the reports indicated that Hurricane Gustav was shifting further and that systems in the Gulf were going to weaken it? No wonder Bob Breck looked irritated after your press conference, when he as forced to continue a weather report. (Btw, Bob Breck, I think that you are probably the only person I trust during Hurricane Coverage, even if you do look like Tim Conway) And don’t forget, Hurricane Gustav had hurricane force winds extending fifty miles from the center. Katrina, on the other hand was over 100 miles from the center. Doing the math, which you are an accounting major you should have no problem doing, Katrina had twice the power than Gustav. I would have realized this had I not listened to your fear mongering.And that is why I am angry.You played me. You played every person in this city. You made us evacuate under false pretenses. You took the tragedy that Katrina was, saw that as an opportunity to make your track record more favorable, and you ran with it, with hopes of re-election I am sure. Instead of being praised by Big Media, they should pick up on exactly what it is that you did and should shame you. They cared when your Martin Luther King Jr speech spoke about God punishing us and sending hurricane after hurricane to wake us up. They cared when you stated that New Orleans was meant to be chocolate city. They cared about the screw up of evacuations, school buses left empty, looting rampant. They should care about the psychological warfare you used on a city that has not mentally healed.And then you refused to let us enter. You refused to allow us back to our home, land we own, while other parishes allowed their residents back. You said there was too much electricity out, too much damage. While sitting a few hours away, I had to put faith in that - the claimed damage, the claimed electricity outages. Why is it, however, that bars and hotels were up and running in the French Quarter? Or that uptown remained unscathed. (Was that God’s will, too?) or Mid-town had electricy in most areas? Damage? The only damage I have seen, driving and walking around this city I love so much, are a few downed buildings - buildings left abandoned after Katrina, never repaired. You want damage? Do yourself a favor and go visit Houma or some of the other parishes that suffered real damage and will be dealing with that damage for quite some time. You wanted people to be empathetic to New Orleans during Katrina, how about being empathetic to all these other people during Gustav.Evacuation out of the city was a mess and for you to say it went well makes me wonder what exactly your plan on evacuation was? Eleven hours to Jackson, Mississippi in hot weather - elderly and ill and infants sitting at a standstill in sweltering heat, unable to stop at rest stops for fuel or food or even bathroom breaks. I cannot even count how many men I saw at the side of the road, relieving themselves. Us women weren’t so lucky. Or the car accidents or the cars that could have made it out of the city normally, but the extreme heat and stop and go caused cars to go to the side of the road, abandoned, leaving the people abandoned for hours as well. McComb, Mississippi, one of the first exits opened, looked like Sturgis with cars. Was the evacuation successful in the fact that it got people out of town? Yes. Was it successful otherwise? NO. And, let’s face it, most people did not have a place to evacuate to. They used their rent money and electric money to pay for gas and food to get out of the city. Shelters filled up as fast as they opened. People are returning with very little, if anything at all. Yes, a successful evacuation.I realize that as Mayor of the city, you need to make sure people are safe, you don’t want to be crucified like you were after Katrina, particularly if you want to be re-elected or move forward in your political career. I understand you dont want another tragedy like Katrina, it being a horrible experience all around. As the Mayor, however, you have power and your words mean something. And you need to chose them more wisely. There must be a middle ground where your political career and care for your citizens can both be met. There must be a way for you to look out for us as much as you are looking out for yourself, despite your aspirations because, after all, you are mayor.It’s disrespectful. Not only to us, here now, but to those that lived through Katrina. It is disrespectful to those actually facing crisis right now in the outlining areas, the areas that were slated to be hit by Gustav and were.  Big Media can praise you all they want. They were here, waiting for something to happen. Look at how they sensationalized the water spilling over the Industrial Canal. I watched all the big networks and never once did I hear them admit that the Industrial Canal was doing exactly what it was meant to do, what it was suppose to do, spill over to eleviate stress on the system. Instead, we heard reports on how the water was going to turn to mud and shift the wall and how we were at risk. The local stations, however, knew wise enough to not do that, having been through Katrina themselves. Who exactly were you playing to, when you made that infamous press conference and bad judgement calls, the national media or the people in the city you represent. Yes, even us Uptown people. What neighborhood do you live in exactly? I thought I heard it was uptown. Just wondering.There is a story about a boy who cried wolf. He cried wolf so many times that people stopped believing him. You have become that boy and I hope, for all of our sakes, that the next time you tell us the wolf is at bay, we believe you. Fear-mongering is never a way to lead. I think the last eight years have taught us that.My best,One of them Uptown Folks

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