No Joke to New Orleans- the good, the bad and the FEMA.

Funny thing is it's no joke to New Orleans

OPINION

By JACK COLWELL

Tribune Columnist

NEW ORLEANS -- The evil eye of Katrina focused on Louisiana a year and nine months ago, bringing flood waters, devastation and death to New Orleans. Now, this is a city of jokes.

Funny things have happened since that Aug. 29, 2005, when Katrina found weakened levees. Funny things. Jokes. Now we can laugh?

The Times-Picayune, New Orleans' excellent newspaper, told last week about "a painful joke." Seems like FEMA still is denying Louisiana $1.14 billion because Washington bureaucrats decreed that a state aid program "discriminates against young people."

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Funny things? Well, there are funny signs.

"For rent" signs are seen on piles of debris that once were buildings. What's to rent? What a joke.

"For sale" signs are scrawled on windows of other crumbled structures. Buy that? Buy there? What a joke.

"For
lease" signs are propped up at doorways that once had doors. A
long-term lease? For how long could that thing remain standing? What a
joke.

This is a city of jokes, painful jokes, as well as a city with people determined to restore New Orleans to past greatness.

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The national news media don't focus much on New Orleans now, not a year and nine months after Katrina.

There
are other more important stories. Will Paris Hilton go to jail? What
will Sanjaya do now? Who really was the father of Anna Nicole's baby?

Funny, isn't it?

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