It’s about that time again. It’s suddenly interesting for the country and especially the media to take a little peak at what’s happening in New Orleans. Anniversaries do that. Some really great people have never left and really care about my city.

People like to focus on our corrupt politicians. I don’t really know how to respond to that. I don’t vote for them. Some of that is a racial, educational, and social problem. Perhaps some of this problem will be solved now that people who have moved away and don’t intend to move back have finally been pulled off the voting registrations. It almost made sense to bus people in to vote for past elections, but now it is fairly clear that the vast majority are not interested in moving back if they have not tried to make the move already. I don’t know how you solve our political problems. So many people vote entirely on party or race lines.

Although we’re hardly alone in this. Even in Middlebury, some of the smartest people I’ve ever met were the most close-minded when it came to politics. There were people that would rather call you names and walk away then discuss issues if you didn’t hold the exact same ultra-liberal view on a certain subject. It’s perhaps the saddest thing about Middlebury, VT because I learned so much discussing so many different subjects with friends — but politics were off limits unless you were a bobble-head.

Not everything is bad in New Orleans. Our public school system (mainly charter schools now) is finally on a path to actually educating our children. People are standing up and demanding that government improve – we’ve already fixed our levee boards and assessors offices. New companies are opening.

I’m interested in what slant most of the national media will take for this anniversary. They always push an agenda. It’s partially the presidential candidates’ faults because New Orleans is their soapbox. Times Picayune columnist Chris Rose always has some good observations on the current soul of New Orleans, but the other news outlets will likely tell very different stories.

I’m guessing that some of my friends would call me an optimist and others would call me a pessimist (I just like taking both sides). Although, I always seem to choose to be hopeful for the future of New Orleans. I don’t know if that really says anything about me or New Orleans, but I know what it means to me.