Dr. Francis might have mentioned that he's my first cousin and that our different views regarding New Orleans's impoverished population and its claims on supportive social policy have been a matter of bar and breakfast table debate for several decades.

Adolph Reed

Narberth , PA

Give me a freaking break. Dr. Reed is an expatriate from forty years ago. What we need in New Orleans is the politics of practicality. Most of our politicians, educators and leaders are operating like headless chickens. The so-called economic upper-class is partying like it is the dawn of a new Jim Crow era, the police and interlopers in the Treme' (the historical home of NOLA's colored musicians and artists) are assaulting the one last vestige of culture in New Orleans. The unions in New Orleans are still mired in the Business As Usual ushered in by Huey Long seventy-five years ago. What we need is complete overhaul, a major colonic.

We in NOLA need to support different, educated individuals who can win. Not the same names, political clubs or activists with nothing to show for their good works or intentions. New Charity hospital, oh yeah--two-tier healthcare, where the poor get sicker, only in NOLA.

My message for all those who care enough to pontificate about what is wrong with NOLA from afar: I do not want to hear it, read it, smell it. Either move here, come back or shut the fuck up. Mf.

Michael Francis

New Orleans, LA