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Date Posted: 11:06:41 01/27/06 Fri
Author: Kent Fletcher
Subject: Random Thoughts - 012706

Random Thoughts on January 27, 2006 - © Kent Fletcher

It appears today there are several factors of somewhat insignificant matters which tend to rile the feathers of folk. The major one I've seen in the last few weeks results from NOLA Mayor Ray Nagin's comments on MLK Day in NOLA, and I can't quote directly without looking hard and long, but it pivots around his statements of his longing for NOLA to be the nation's 'chocolate city'. To wit, a kinda-sorta funny sent to me this morning:

Did he (Nagin) ever stop to think that:

99% of the people who come to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and pump money into their restaurants and hotels are VANILLA?

99% of the people who come to New Orleans for tourism and fill up their restaurants and their hotels are VANILLA?

99% of the people who travel to New Orleans for large conventions and utilize catering services, rental cars, hotels and visit Bourbon Street and all tourist attractions are VANILLA?

99% of the money being pumped into the "Chocolate City's" economy is coming from the pockets of VANILLA people?

Without the money brought into New Orleans by VANILLA people......where would the "chocolate" city be?????

I say if Nagin wants his city to be all chocolate......then let's give it to him..... Let's take our VANILLA money elsewhere..... We can put our VANILLA money into Biloxi and Gulfport..... You never hear those people complaining about the devastation they suffered during Katrina......and you sure as hell don't hear them calling their city "chocolate."

So keep your VANILLA butt outa tha chocolate factory......lets see if they can make it without our green dollars.....

While I don't agree with the full statement(s), as there are all races and creeds coming to NOLA for whatever reasons, in a city as historically dark as NOLA, at least downtown, and in the 9th Ward (what's left of it), and the French Quarter, the presence of anyone not of color is strikingly evident, especially when one is away from the tourist attractions.

If one goes out of Orleans Parish, to Jefferson, to lower St. Bernard, to Plaquemines, even across Pontchartain Lake to the North Shore, the predominance of color is noticeably different, i.e., one would think the people of color don't exist to the extent as within Orleans Parish. As with other major cities, the lure of the suburbs and the degradations of the inner city have taken most of the people who are not of color away, thus leaving the inner city to fall into moral decay. But folks do still live there, breed there, make a living there, and die there.

I've also noted in my wanderings around the Internet the stories of the refugees. Some of them have been moved so far away, to the far corners of the continental US, and have been in these remote locations long enough to adjust their lives and their ways of thinking about the future, that they are seemingly hesitant about returning to the dismal lives they had before Katrina. Of course some of them knew absolutely nothing about the world outside of Orleans Parish, much less outside of their own neighborhoods, and it is most likely quite unsettling to them, scarey in fact, and they are anxious to return to their ancestral home. But with the amounts of destruction and mayhem in those areas, from New Orleans to Mobile, I would think it highly unlikely any rebound or return of those ancestral areas are to be accomplished in the near future. Sad.

Another thing I got an email on this morning takes me back in time to my Navy days in the Pentagon. Quote:

From August 5, 1964 through March 28, 1973, many of you, our Veteran brothers and sisters were among the 8,744,000 active duty U.S. military personnel who proudly served our Nation during the war in Vietnam, with 2,594,000 of you serving within the borders of South Vietnam.

Everyone here at VetFriends.com has taken a moment to reflect and express our deepest respect and gratitude to the Courage, Bravery and Patriotism of all of our Vietnam Veterans. We salute you.

January 27, 1973 - Cease-fire in Vietnam

On January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords were signed declaring a cease-fire in Vietnam. The U.S. government, South Vietnam and North Vietnam governments pledged to "respect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Vietnam as recognized by the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Vietnam."

The U.S. further agreed to continue withdrawing troops, which resulted in a complete removal of soldiers by March 29, 1973.

The "Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" was the official title of the signed text.

Over several years beginning as early as 1961, the U.S. escalated its forces in the Vietnam war assisting South Vietnam in opposition to communism — to deter Soviet-based expansion and control throughout Southeast Asia.

By 1968, there were 529,000 Americans fighting in Vietnam. By the end of the war 58,226 American soldiers had given their lives fighting for our country.

VetFriends.com sends our prayers to all who sacrificed, both past and present, living and dead.

We are here to honor and support all of you, our U.S. Veterans, military personnel, family and friends with great services such as veteran search, post your military photos, reunion information and much more!

Thank You to our Vietnam Veterans...along with ALL of our U.S. Veterans and active Military!
For more authentic military photos please visit our collection by clicking on Military Photos. Submit some of your own as well!

Best Regards,

The Veterans at VetFriends.com

Yes, I was in the Pentagon on that fateful day, and in a very short time I was reassigned from Navy Flag Plot to Navy Intel Plot to work with officers and enlisted alike on Operation HOMECOMING - The Repatriation of the US POWs from Southeast Asia. The duty lasted but six short weeks, but the gratification felt by me for these members' sacrifices - some for six and seven years - was nothing short of overwhelming. And I'm sure the other watch-standers were feeling the same way. I remember when Jeremiah Denton stepped off the plane in Hawaii, man, what a sight, what a relief, what a moment in time for them, and for me, as well. I'll never forget.

And, lastly at least for this memoir, tomorrow, January 28, 2006, is the 20th anniversary of the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, and the death of its seven crew members. I remember the day well, as I was returning from somewhere in the bowels of the Naval Reserve Headquarters Command in New Orleans (in the 9th Ward, yet), and I happened to walk by the Marine Corps duty office (my office was in the Marine Corps wing of the building). Several Marines were crowded in the little room, all eyes glued to the television, watching replay after replay of the tragedy. For whatever reason, the event did not really whack me, not like 9/11 did. I think most Americans of the day were aware of the possibilities of such a tragedy, and when it happened it was like a spike through the heart. And in the years since there has been yet another tragedy, that of the shuttle on return disintegrating over Dallas, east Texas, and west Louisiana. Yet in the quest of explorations, while the shuttle programs were put on hold for refinement, for investigations, for myriads of reasons, the explorations have and will continue, each tragedy renewing the possibilities of loss, yet further steeling the fortitude and determination of space travel.

So I go, the memories come flooding back on a near daily basis. Not all bad, not all good, but a good mixture which have made me who I am today.

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