[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish--One Year Later

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish--One Year Later
By Lois Dunn

If I'd driven through St. Bernard Parish before Katrina I'd probably have
yawned because it was so typically average American. But to see it now
leaves one angered and mystified that this is happening in America. 

I think St. Bernard Parish unfortunately is often overlooked in the Post
Katrina narrative. Most are aware of the Lower 9th Ward yet many other areas
in and around New Orleans were devastated. Lives, homes, businesses,
neighborhoods and whole communities were lost directly affecting people of
all races and incomes. All their stories of survival and the struggle to
reclaim their lives deserve telling.

I admit to having a soft spot for St. Bernard Parish and I'm not really sure
why. Perhaps because it is was so quintessentially American and now, since
often forgotten, it is also a story of a classic American underdog. Do
forgive me for invoking the one movie guaranteed to make men cry but I feel
like the Gayle Sayers character in "Brian Song" who says..."I love Brian
Piccolo St. Bernard Parish. And I'd like all of you to love him them too. 

Or perhaps it is because I hate incomplete stories.
If we are to have an understanding of the complete picture of Katrina and
the federal flood we must remember places like Chalmette, Arabi, St.
Bernard, Lakeview, New Orleans East, Gentilly and on and on. 

This has been a tragedy of unbelievable proportion. Telling the story of St.
Bernard Parish is one way to make people aware of that and the fact that it
is not over. I do hope you'll watch this video taken August 30, 2006 of
scenes from the Parish, much of which is truly a ghost town. I also narrate
to tell you the before and after of the people of St. Bernard Parish. 

Video and Narration: scout (again shot while driving a shift)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe6YhCv_NGI&eurl=

Music: Adagio for Strings, Op. 11...NY Philharmonic

Length: 4:40


The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the
first and only object of good government. ---Thomas Jefferson