The person introducing me to Gilda Reed, Democratic Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, La. 01, was gesturing to the young woman with the dark hair who had just arrived with a group of people. My first thought was, "I thought she was older and a blond." I turned to say "hello" to her but she indicated another person. I looked to where she had pointed and there stood a middle aged man. Now I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. I was really confused. Isn’t Gilda a woman? (The man later turned out to be Gilda’s husband, Sam.) Not wanting to appear dumbstruck, I put out my hand and said, "Gilda"? He smiled and stepped aside to let the person behind him step through the little circle that had formed.
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I recognized her instantly. A petite blond, who will always look several years younger than either you or I at the same age, fresh and calm, reached out to shake my hand. She looked me straight in the eye but there was nothing aggressive about it. In fact, she seemed more interested in observing me. Gilda Reed is a born psychologist.
The event was the first, last and most recent, New Orleans, dailykos Meetup. Oh, we’d had one on the day John Edwards came to town to announce that he was running but that one had a looser feel than this one. Besides, Gilda Reed was rumored to be attending and we all wanted to meet her. It was thrown together haphazardly and good naturedly, on-line in one of YatPundit’s diaries. Since Katrina, there are little communities springing up everywhere and it was time to get out from behind our computers and be among the living who breath air, pump blood and have this really wonderful thing they can do called "touch".
So, there we were at The Columns having drinks, talking to one another, perfect strangers feeling each other out. The evening went well but the main thing that came out of it was the decision that we all needed to do something to further Gilda’s campaign and get her elected.
Let me tell you what I know about her thus far.
Gilda will talk to anyone about any topic. She is consistent in what she says. She has one purpose and one purpose only – to serve the citizens of La. 01 in the United States House of Representatives so that they (me, we, us) can maintain a standard of living that gives us and our children a better grab at that lovely leg up in life. Gilda is a strong advocate for a vibrant Middle Class.
In the months following Katrina, many of us exchanged stories about visiting places that no longer exist, cleaning out family homes where nothing but a slab remains. Family members who could no longer bear the strain, who moved away, or who never came back and in some sad cases, simply died, often from a broken heart, have been permanently included in all of our family stories that will be passed down to the next generation. This miasma is what inspired Dr. Reed to leave the comfort of three generations of family and a cushy job teaching at University of New Orleans, to pursue the dirty, rotten, low-down, business of politics and believe me, darlin’s, it doesn’t get much worse than in Louisiana. The same families have lived here since there were European and African people in Louisiana. That old song, "I’m My Own Grandpa" is entirely possible in Louisiana. This sense of continuous history is embedded in Louisianian’s DNA.
The Reed family had a home in Pass Christian (pronounced: Pass Cris-tee-anne), Mississippi. Pass Christian is a lovely little bay/ocean town situated on a scenic highway that runs along the water. All along the coast are some of the most beautiful, gigantic, old and resplendent mansions that have remained in the same New Orleans families since they were built. The names behind the door knockers like Villere, Forstall, Chauvin, LaBranche and Trepagnier are still the denizens of these graceful homes.
Gilda Reed’s family had a home in Pass Christian as well. The home was totally demolished by a wave estimated to possibly be as high as 40 feet. After the storm, the families, including Gilda’s, were left with the job of traveling the hour from New Orleans to a now abandoned , empty and lonely Pass Christian, to salvage what might be left of a legacy.
Many of us have commented to one another about the stretch of I-10 that runs through New Orleans East. It is one of the strangest experiences shared by many. New Orleans East is the largest area of New Orleans. On the Twin Span, an extremely high bridge, one can look out over New Orleans East and see nothing but lights as far as your eye can see. However, since Katrina, especially if you are traveling at night, it feels like the loneliest, emptiest place in the world. Looking out of your car window, all you see is darkness yet you know that there are the ruins of hundreds of thousands of houses, whose outlines occasionally reveal themselves, in the silver reflection of an unclouded moon.
The fastest way to Pass Christian from New Orleans includes this span of I-10 that runs through New Orleans East. Gilda Reed and her family traveled it often before and after Katrina. It was during one of these trips that something suddenly dawned on Gilda Reed. Nothing had changed. No progress had been made. No one was home and the lights were still out.
The mix of emotion Gilda felt at this realization is difficult to describe but most of it was sheer anger. Anger at the injustice of it all. Anger that no one was fighting to get what New Orleanians and the people of the Gulf Coast had been promised they’d get by the government. Anger that human beings could be treated so expendably. Anger at herself for whining about how bad things had gotten but not doing anything about it. Apparently Gilda Reed thought the people of the area were SOMEBODY.
Gilda told me about a thought she had had that I’m finding very common among the people affected by Katrina. The thought is that before Katrina, simply and sparsely put, "I liked my life." It is said with resentment and defiance. The defiance, I suspect, is aimed at Katrina herself. It’s a way of spitting right in her face and saying "Fuck you" to all the misery she brought us. There isn’t one of us who hasn’t had to come to terms with it, through our own way of mourning the losses we’ve incurred. While some of us were ready to work, others of us just weren’t up to it. I have friends who left the city. It was just too much to take. The party was over. It would never be the same. After two and a half years, most of them have moved back. Those who haven’t been able to come back wish they could. I have more than one or two friends who rowed a boat out of New Orleans after Katrina. I have a therapist friend who stayed for the storm and rescued many, many people in his boat after Katrina had passed. He was written up in the NYTimes. They did a big article about his heroism and it was just that. His 16 year daughter died of a drug overdose two weeks ago – heroin and cocaine. It was just an experiment.....
Gilda Reed told me that she was sick of her depression. She was sick of her own complaining. When she had been a teenager, she had a mishap on a bus. I’m not sure if I have the story right but she’ll correct me where I’m wrong. Gilda Reed has had polio since she was two and walks with braces. Now that she is older and has raised seven children she sometimes uses a wheelchair. But when she was younger, a teenager in fact, she was getting on a bus. It was crowded and so she had to move out of the way to let passengers on knowing that, with her braces, she and they would have difficulty if she stayed where she, was. Apparently, a black woman sitting next to her took Gilda’s move away from her personally and made a comment about, "now they don’t want to sit next to us" and kind of shoved Gilda out of the way. As Gilda was still taking this in, a black man who had been sitting further back in the bus, came up to her and said, "I don’t want you to think we’re all like that.", and apologized. It was a pivotal point in Gilda’s life. It really surprised her that a black man would be concerned enough about her to try to explain the situation. It was an awakening of sorts, to the links that exist between all of us.
And so, in a quickening of the senses, Gilda Reed then and there what she had to do. Bobby Jindal's vacated seat was up for grabs and she'd be damned if she wasn't going to be sitting in it. There wasn't a single Democrat running for it. Why not? A lifetime of studying an area of psychology that asked "yeah, but how do we apply that finding to real life?" makes her a perfect candidate to think of ways to solve the problems of the area that have occurred both before and after Katrina.
YatPundit has already written a diary about that rat, Steve Scalise. The other person running against her is Burns. Our Gilda is the only person running for this job that is actually invested in doing the job. She has no other political asperations beyond the U.S. House of Representatives. The other two are using this job further advance their careers. They will run for higher office and vacate the seat as soon as they can.
Without Gilda, we don’t have anyone who will stand up for us in our district. We’ve already had years of neglect from Bobby Jindal.
Gilda has explained, very clearly to me, what her priorities are and what she believes in. She wants to promote a healthier small business atmosphere and boost the middle class. She is a fiscal conservative. After raising 7 children, she understands the word, "budget". She is a big picture person but also has the ability to narrow down ideas into "what do we have to do to make this happen" policies and legislation. Gilda also believes that our priorities are out of order. This is so true and is a big reason why so little has gotten done. Just think of Mayor Nagin. His first thought to help the city, following its almost total destruction, was to open gambling in all the hotels on Canal Street.
We Need Reed. But We Aren’t Going To Get Her if she doesn’t have any money.
I am writing this diary to ask you to donate to her campaign. Money is where it’s at and we all know that. Those guys running against her, they're all out-of-touch fat cats. But, fat cats they are, none-the-less and Gilda hasn't got a chance unless she's got the backing and I'll be perfectly blunt - the financial backing is what is needed. So, please, in this series of dkos diaries for Gilda Reed, donate some bucks. Stop being stingy!! Have a generous New Orleans spirit today and give her a little sugar!!! We all say thank you.
After meeting Gilda Reed and talking with her about her life, I am confident when I say to you that Gilda Reed is what Louisiana needs right now.
Rebuilding Louisiana: Gilda Reed 24-Hour Online Fundraiser
Help us support Kossack Candidate Gilda Reed for Congress in Louisiana's 1st District! She's running in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Bobby Jindal. We'll be posting diaries about Gilda for the next 24 hours to raise support and bring attention to her candidacy. Please join us and learn more about this great Democratic candidate!
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Lagniappe: That little extra you get for free that you know you didn’t earn, but you’re getting it anyway. And here's yours.
Clint Maedgen - my favorite!!