The Independent, But Not Sovereign, City-state of New Orleans

We who live here always knew New Orleans was like another country – in a good way. Ten months after Katrina, we are seeing more and more examples that New Orleans is like another country in a bad way:

Diane Graflie has been a missionary in numerous countries. She says conditions in Africa were not as bad as some of those in New Orleans.

Graflie and Robin Owen were volunteers at an Operation Blessing medical clinic. It's one of the few places where residents can still see a doctor. Owen says, "We saw people that had blood pressures of 178 over 110 and they are up walking around and have not had medication since before the storm."

Let’s not disparage all of Africa. The industrialized parts have everything that the major U.S. cities have, things that New Orleans used to have. I think, however, that these missionaries weren’t serving in the industrialized parts of Africa and they aren’t comparing conditions in New Orleans to Johannesburg.

The most un-democratic part of a democracy is the fact that no state, or city, can democratically vote to secede.