Dawnsinger

To be honest, as the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina churns toward us, I'm getting a bit overwhelmed.  As a journalist, the pressure is on to provide THE DEFINITIVE Katrina retrospective.  And yet there is not really anything "retro" about our perspective; Katrina is still very much a real ordeal, without a real plan or solution on the table, and with no guarantee that we will recover.

Mayor Nagin today stuck his well-soaked foot into his mouth again, attempting to defend himself against criticism of foot-dragging on developing a plan to rescue New Orleans.  With recorders from the 60 Minutes crew rolling, Nagin pointed at New York City, noting that after five years since 9/11, the Big Apple hasn't fixed the "hole in the ground" that was once the World Trade Center.

That's our public face - our ambassador.  Let's backslap the one city in the country that might really understand our collective trauma.  The city flaks are busy working on the spin, but frankly there isn't enough money left in the city budget to patch the holes in Nagin's public persona.

Morituri te salutamus.

Meanwhile the onslaught of anniversary events continues. Every church, every special-interest group, every political faction has dumped an invitation into my mailbox.  Please send the rescue boats!  One event, however, I'm commiting to personally.  The Rising Tide conference, a summit meeting of what I call New Orleans "power bloggers" kicks off today, with a schedule of seminars and panels on Saturday.  This event is near and dear to my heart, because it underlines the importance of bloggers and "citizen journalists", who along with the professional media have authentic local news coverage and been the conscience of the rebuilding effort.  I'll be participating in a panel on Saturday afternoon that looks at how bloggers and journalists joined hands to create a "gumbo" of coverage during and after the storm.