Drug Abuse New Orleans: Raping Louisiana – a Book About the Katrina Disaster and Its Continued Aftermath
Hurricane Katrina, a disaster of Biblical proportions, is no longer in the news but the devastation of the land and the victimization of the residents of the Gulf Coast continue. Philip Harris’s Raping Louisiana – A Diary of Deceit addresses the aftermath of the storm through the eyes of Steve Burgoyne, a middle aged truck driver from upstate New York. The bluntly honest depiction of his yearlong odyssey working in the Katrina cleanup efforts reveals the corruption, the despair, and the government waste in detailed diary entries.
Burgoyne’s descriptions, presented with the minutia of a daily journal, illustrate the three types of people who came to the Gulf in the aftermath of the storm: crooks, victims trying to survive, and the people who came because they genuinely care. Burgoyne met plenty of all, the faceless contractors came down to make a quick fortune off the government and the unfortunate; the victims as they wandered the streets of the Dead Zone in the lower ninth ward; and the men moving debris and clearing the streets of rubble.
Steve and his crew worked and lived in conditions little better than those of a third world country. They initially slept in travel trailers parked in horse pastures with no potable water or sewage facilities. But even in those conditions, the men stayed on working to make the land clear so the previous inhabitants of the Gulf Coast could return to their land. Every truck load carried away from previously populated area impacted the men who worked there. “It was stressful…you’re picking up pieces of somebody’s life.” Throughout, it is evident that Burgoyne’s family was his support network while he toiled in the land of the hopeless.
On the Gulf, with no affordable places to live, there is no working class to run the shops and businesses in the service industries. FEMA has made a feeble attempt to provide housing for those living in shelters surrounded by hopelessness. Those that stayed and now make their homes there are the disabled, the elderly, and the unskilled labor. They now sit in their FEMA provided formaldehyde-laced cages destitute and deeply depressed. The rebuilding of the city has completely ignored this disenfranchised population, government supplemented affordable housing is not a priority in the re-building boom.
New Orleans is currently the murder capital of the world. Depression, suicide, and anxiety are rampant. The devastation of the storm still takes victims in its path through drugs and alcohol abuse. The imported workers and those refugees who remained self-medicate as they live side by side in a ravaged land.
Ignored, forgotten, and abandoned the Gulf Coast is still a hotbed of contention and corruption. Raping Louisiana is a good read for raising America’s social consciousness. We can provide millions of dollars to tsunami stricken countries, we can fund a war to fight terrorism, and we can forgive billions of dollars of foreign debt but we have written off our own citizens. Raping Louisiana should be a wakeup call to those who have forgotten Katrina and her victims. Is anybody listening?
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Shannon is also a co-author of Get Found Now! Local Search Secrets Exposed: Learn How to Achieve High Rankings in Google, Yahoo and Bing and multiple business ebooks. Her books teach entrepreneurs how to leverage the internet to attract new clients.
Shannon has a wide and varied background in both the practical and the pragmatic aspects of the business world. Shannon loves nothing better than teaching local businesses how to think globally and to be searched locally.
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Ecstasy- Narconon Drug Education- Ecstasy Addiction – Ecstasy- Narconon Drug Education- Ecstasy Addiction Narconon presnts education on Ecstasy addiction and ecstasy abuse. Narconon is a non-traditional drug rehab and drug education center. Here are the facts on Ecstasy: Slang or Street Names: Ecstasy, XTC, X, Adam, Clarity, Lover’s Speed Chemically, MDMA (Ecstasy) is similar to the stimulant amphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline. MDMA (Ecstasy) can produce both stimulant and mild sensory-altering effects. Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA), and paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA) are chemically similar to MDMA (Ecstasy), are sometimes found in ecstasy tablets, and can produce deleterious health effects. MDMA (Ecstasy) is usually taken orally, via a tablet or capsule. Its effects last approximately 3 to 6 hours, though depression, sleep problems, and anxiety have been reported for days to weeks afterwards. MDMA (Ecstasy) can produce a significant increase in heart rate and blood pressure and a sense of alertness similar to that associated with amphetamine use. MDMA (Ecstasy) can cause a marked increase in body temperature (hyperthermia), which may further be exacerbated by hot and crowded conditions characteristic of the rave environment. Hyperthermia can lead to liver, kidney, and cardiovascular system failure. MDMA (Ecstasy) can interfere with its own metabolism (breakdown), so repeated use over a short interval of time can lead to especially harmful levels in the body. Ecstasy users can …
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