You don't forget, not when you work in a daily newsroom, you can't, but it slips to the back of your mind for a minute, and then the little things flood your mind again.
So I was making dinner tonight and ripped open the Zatarain's box (I was making quick red beans and rice with andouille), and for a minute there my throat caught again.
It's just a dumb boxed dinner, but the box says NEW ORLEANS on it eight million times, and their logo is the little jazzman, and their whole product line is N.O.-specific. And I thought of their damn jazzy jingle, and looked at their New Orleans zip code in the small type, and I thought about how many things had changed since that box of red beans and rice left New Orleans.
Their Web site is still up and running (still offering New Orleans e-cards and music, even), and it looks like the company has relocated from Gretna, LA to Dallas. They also posted a note trying to locate their Louisiana employees. How many times, how many times, is this scenario being re-enacted, with companies, with schools, with groups of all kinds.
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4 comments:
My company has an office in New Orleans and we've located 56 of 61 employees. I hope the others just haven't had a chance to call the hotline.
Every day it's hard for myself and my immediate co-workers. See, we work for a medical network. Since the Tuesday after the storm, we've been getting non-stop calls from people in the New Orleans area looking for doctors. Some are still in LA, MS or AR. Some have relocated to other states. It's hard to tell them we're unable to access the system from the NOLA office so we can't give you the names of anyone right now.
I've heard stories from "My oxygen tank is floating in my home and I need to find someone to get a replacement." to "I'm homeless and I have no money. We need to cancel our insurance for now." It breaks my heart, but I do the best I can so that I can help them as best as I can.
Some of the insurance companies who use our network are based out of New Orleans and patients can't get through to them either.
I've spent a good number of hours looking over pictures and stories on msnbc.com and on the tv and a number of those hours have been spent with tears in my eyes. Even though our government seems to have failed these people, I'm so glad that Average Joe America and companies big and small around the land have pitched in where they can.
It makes me proud to be an American.
Thank you for sharing. I've been wondering how day to day life is happening.
I made that rice the other day, too, and had the same reaction. I just pray that when New Orleans gets good again, I can go there, as I have wanted to do all my life and never have. Just goes to prove once again that we ought not to put things offf.
Zatarain's boxed rice goodies are very tasty.
But I hope they never move back to Gretna, and in fact I hope every person or company with a heart or a conscience makes sure never to contribute a dime to the economy of Gretna again. This is the town just over the Mississippi River from New Orleans that shut down the bridge to their town with armed guards after Katrina hit, because they didn't want any of that New Orleans riffraff trying to RUN FOR THEIR LIVES in their precious town. That's beyond messed up. That's inhuman. I hope the Zatarain's company makes themselves real comfortable in Dallas.
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