Asleep on Bayou St. John

06 January 2009, 11:11 am

By James Sebastien
 
Several sunday nights ago, around eleven, I walked outside to put the trashcan out for the pick up in the morning.  I looked across the street at Bayou St. John, and I noticed a little lady asleep.  Asleep on the bank of Bayou St. John.  I began to go through several emotions at once, numerous thoughts began to go through my mind.  
 
I thought she was once an 18-year-old girl, every homeless person was once 18-years-old, and some have even the worse pain of not ever knowing anything else.  I thought about how all across the US tonight people are sleeping in their cars, under bridges, in parks, and any other place one could imagine.
 
It made me think back all the way to when I was on my seventh grade field trip to Washington D.C., and I remembered the chaperones telling us how another homeless shelter had closed.  That these pour souls where going to be at various spots through out the whole city.  We were told not to interact, and we were told not to help them out.  In our Nation's Capitol, the most powerful symbol of freedom, and human rights in the world was and still is filled with a giant pink elephant contradiction.    
 
I no longer felt sad,  but I began to fill angry.  For that I'm a proud American, proud of my French and Irish-American heritage, and the struggles my ancestors went through to become part of the United States. Which makes me all the more ashamed that we, one of the richest countries in the world can not take the time out to help the flower buds growing in our own backyard.  Flower buds that only need the basic essentials to grow and blossom.
 
In New Orleans The City that Care Forgot or The City Where People are Forgotten, is home to an abundance of neglected flower buds.  People who are forced to move like nomads.  Where our own Mayor Ray Nagin addressed the issue of homeless New Orleanians, by building a fence in front of City Hall.  As if he was a farmer building a fence around his vegetable garden to keep the rabbits out.  
 
So once again the homeless, or the New Orleans Nomads, or rather human being who are just down on their luck are once again forced to seek refuge.  This time under the Claiborne bridge, others in Audubon Park, City Park, and yes even on Bayou St. John.
 
So while another night goes by, and the homeless our left out to cry.  Where is everyone one tonight?  Where is the President George W. Bush?  Where is Governor Bobby Jindal?  Where are Senators David Vitter and Mary Landrieu?  I do not know for certain, but I do know where one person is tonight.  The Little Lady who is asleep on the Bayou.

Previous Posts:

• An Interview with Tony Wagner
• The Race to Failure
• TGIF or TGFO
• There Has Been Blood
• Citizen Courier Welcomes James Sebastien!