Gentilly Girl- a part of the 99%

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.” –Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 1787.

I’ll tell you right now, I’m not happy with having the National Guard patrolling our city. This amounts to an ‘occupation’, and that cannot stand in our city. We are free people. We always have been.

What is happening to New Orleans is a failure of leadership, plain and simple. It is also a marginalizing of the common folks and our history. This cannot stand.

We are faced with carpetbaggers again, and just like in the 19th Century, many of them are from here. No mas.

New Orleans belongs to New Orleans. Without this city and it’s people, this nation would never have achieved it’s greatness. Our sacrifices created the most powerful country on earth. Where else in this country can you find a populace that can state that?

You can’t.

I have uncles on the Atlantic seafloor from WWI, and in all oceans from WWII. There are many shrimping vessels on the bottom of the Gulf, carrying my people, all in the name of feeding a country. For almost 300 years the folks of New orleans have been standing on the edge of a continent less than 1,000 years old, defying the odds. We, or our children, will be here for centuries more.
The odds were in our favor before the the Feds and the oil companies started thier crap. Now we must fight a rearguard action. The oil fucks destroyed our wetlands, and the Corps turned our city into a freakin’ bowl with MRGO aimed at our heart. We have been losing for over 50 years. This also cannot stand.

This place must take control of it’s destiny. Must learn to be independant and forceful. Become a power, because we ARE a power in this nation. We need to stand.

We are part of the Isle d’Orleans. We were bought, not conquered. Our ancestors were taken, and their descendants were raped. No more.

Our culture is OUR culture. Screw “American” values. We ARE NOT Modern America… we are the free people of the Gulf Coast. Ours is ours. This is our world, not theirs. This is our oil, our sea life, and it’s time for the rest of the country to give us some respect.

We are not slaves to the rest of the country. We will not be ‘used’ and abused any longer. To paraphrase Ayn Rand:

“If you saw Atlas, the giant that supports the Earth upon his shoulders, and the harder he tries to stand erect, the harder the world bears down upon him… he sweats and tries to keep things aright. What would you tell him?

I’d tell him to shrug.”

You know where I’m going…

Well, almost two weeks into Nagin’s new term, and NOFD is getting screwed.

“ The firefighters at Engine House No. 12 on Franklin Avenue have been in living together in a trailer that had been supplied by the city while their living quarters were gutted. But on Thursday, the city contacted Engine House No. 12, along with four other companies living in similar situations, and informed them that their trailers were being repossessed.”

We have had eight fires in two days. Most of our city is made of wood. Our water pressure sux, and these guys and gals are our heroes.

My challenge to all: I’m going to make a huge meal for the Firehouse on Elysian Fields at I-10 once a week. My thanks for their work. Anyone else want to adopt a station, show their thanks? Such a little amount of time, and yet it will be appreciated so much.

Who’s in?

Okay, it seems like I talk about health alot around here and over on Thoughts, but I’ve been involved for years in the HIV game and the Transitioning crowd. Health is something to be discussed, especially here in New Orleans where health care is sadly lacking.

The other day I wrote about my brush with Tulane’s ER in my quest to get well. Now it’s time for Part two, and that involves Touro Infirmary.

I got to sign in right away, but there was confusion over my VA stuffs… they were concerned about “ability to pay”, especially in light of the fact that I’m on SSDI. Being in the middle of Transition didn’t help: some of them are having probs with my gender and my records… people are staring at me. I’m not used to being questioned, folks just accept me. Been that way for years, even when I tell them the truth from the get go.

I crawl into a corner and start reading my books. One just came in: “The New Goddess”, by Gypsey Teague, and “Walkers Between the Worlds”, by the Matthews. Sorta outs me anyway: a changling witch. I wait for two hours for triage. My fever is rising, I’m hungry and lonely. Suddenly a woman shows up and talks to me. It’s Danielle from El Rio…. poor thing has an abcessed tooth. It’s a small world, so we claim our corner as the others look at us in a way that says, “Those Bohemians”.

Thirty minutes later the triage nurse sees me. Keeps calling me ‘sir’. Hands me a mask to wear and sends me back to the waiting room. I am suspected of being “Typhoid Morwen’.  I’m starting to feel really alone.

After a few hours I am taken to my own little room. It’s labeled ‘Isolation’.  For the next six hours I was poked and prodded… and constantly cracking jokes for the nurses working on me. (Even had a great talk with the doc about Trans and Intersexed folks. Turns out she has a niece that’s Intersex… she is now being more warm with me.) At the end of this period comes the medical verdict: I have a bladder infection that has become systemic. Probably been coming on for over a year. Two more weeks and I would’ve been in the ICU, but that night is was still a matter of taking pills. I dodged a bullet.

Overall the experience was good at Touro. I didn’t care for the suspicious looks or the financial 3rd Degree, but the care was excellant, especially the finding of the real prob, not just a focus on a secondary one. It only cost me $150 for the entire thing.

I still want the VA back though.

For of those that actually read this blog, you may have noticed that in Chapter 100, your heroine was dispatched to a foreign Witch Doctor in order to receive a cure for the malaise that has been plagueing her for the last several months. First stop: Tulane Hospital…

Tulane, wonderful Medical programs, especially Bio-Med and Chem. They’ve done much work in conjunction with the V.A. in the Past. I walk toward the doors of the ER, and I notice something very odd: the first desk inside is staffed with over a dozen Police, no Med folks. I turn and enter another area, and there are many folks waiting for treatment. I ask a white man who sits at a desk behind bullet-proof glass, “Can you help me? The V.A. sent emails over so that I can get this prob looked at.”. The guy looks at me and says to sign in and sit down.

I look around, and there is no sign-in. Once again I approach the glass room, “there are no sign-in sheets there dear.”

“Just sit down, and the nurse will put some out”, he says.

After two hours of waiting and watching the newcomers ask the same questions, and getting the same results I did, I approached the little white god in his control room. “Tulane is under contract with the V.A. to serve as our ER. These other folks here are not even being given the first step to get moving forward into being helped. What’s the point of this place?”

He shrugs and walks away. I go back and sit down. He returns and messily scarfs a sandwich.
Suddenly four cops walk in with a middle-aged tourist from somewhere in Middle America. He is cuffed. I don’t see bullet holes or knife marks, so I must assume he was drunk and got friskiy with some college chicks. They usher him into triage immediantly. Groans come from the waiting crowd.

Checking my VM, there’s a note from my V.A. person…. she has informed and cleared me though Touro, Kenner, Oschners. Somethings wrong with Tulane. I call Betts and head for Touro. (TBC)

The things I need to understand are: Why, when you are getting renumerated for V.A. folks they cannot sign in, Why does a lawbreaker who is not bleeding take precedence over an innocent child who looks as if they have a broken arm?, Why is it that the basic materials for getting into the process are being withheld, even if providing them still results in the same wait time, but without the feeling of being ignored?

I’m not upset for myself per se… I have options. Most of the folks in that room had none. We need Charity back, and Tulane needs some really extreme Racism Training. (They always did.)
Sweet zombie freakin’ Jezus!, this is Post-Deluge New Orleans, it’s supposed to be a different world, but everywhere I look I see the evils of the Past seeping in. We must be eternally vigilant in order to stop this crap NOW.

If anyone has info or ideas relating to this health care prob, please let me know.