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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

End of the Carpetbagger era?

Clio writes

I have been inspired by the ongoing stream of volunteers who come to our city to help rebuild at the micro-level. Church groups, schools, national organizations of every strip--they came early, and they continue to come.

At the macro-level, however, I sense something significant and stirring.

The carpetbaggers are getting bored, and they're starting to leave. You may have experienced carpetbaggers over the past four years. I certainly have.

These are the people who smelled the chance for immediate financial gain from the plight of a city on its knees.

In many cases, we made it easy for the carpetbaggers--witness Ed Blakely. We offered them ridiculous compensation packages because "we" thought that's what it would take to attract allegedly national and international "experts" here to help us.

We didn't have enough confidence in ourselves--in our knowledge, our hearts, our passion, our work ethic.


I finally finished Richard Campanella's Bienville's Dilemma last night. You come away from it in awe of the daunting (and, as yet, not even begun) task of making this area truly sustainable. There is so much left to do.

It's important to remember that, while we may not need "experts" a-la Dr. Blakely hanging around, we do and will continue to need the sympathetic ear and financial backing of the federal government if we are going to preserve and protect our homes. Right now we have none of that. Last week's Presidential visit demonstrated just how little our problem is understood by Washington to this very day.

I have a post to write about that but I've been too busy to type it out this week. The gist, however, is as long as this place remains worth saving it's still going to be worth screaming about to get it done. And from the looks of things, it's still going to take a lot of screaming.

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