By ALLEN JOHNSON JR.
Special to The Advocate
Published: Apr 29, 2007 - Page: 27a
NEW ORLEANS — Gertrude LeBlanc, an ailing, 71-year-old retired postal worker, suddenly changed the course of a hurricane recovery march through the Lower 9th Ward on Saturday.
And she didn’t even get up from the rocking chair outside of her FEMA trailer. LeBlanc simply smiled and waved at the dozens of demonstrators — led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson — as they began to turn off Tennessee Street, a half a block away from where she sat.
“Whoa … whoa … whoa!” someone in the procession yelled.
The march that Jackson called “to refocus America’s attention” on the sluggish recovery in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast (20 months after Hurricane Katrina struck) — suddenly stopped in midturn at the corner.
U.S. Rep. Bill Jefferson, D-La., Mayor Ray Nagin and former Mayor Marc Morial and other front-row marchers carrying a banner, halted first. Swarming news photographers stopped backpedaling.
A man in a T-shirt then approached Jackson and pointed toward LeBlanc. The civil rights minister turned to his right. Looking across the weed-choked lots where houses once stood, he saw the elderly woman waving from underneath a blue-and-white striped umbrella on her porch.
Without expression, Jackson ordered the march to back up onto Tennessee Street. In short order, the activist and a stream of elected officials were taking turns climbing the flower-decked steps of LeBlanc’s porch. They greeted her warmly and with deference.
As I was reading my Advocate(www.2theadvocate.com), I went to the New Orleans section of the news. As I passed stories of pain, suffering, and the glaring problem of piss poor management, one in particular caught my eye. Basically there was a march in New Orleans that was "focused" on the recovery of New Orleans. Leading this was Jesse Jackson.
My only question is, while they were over there...why didn't they help the poor person out instead of shaking their hand?
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