Katrina:          Oh I come from a long, line of folks.  These people here in America, they bring me here. 

Myself:             Could you describe "these people here in America"?

Katrina:          These people that's turning up the heat on this whole place.  I don't know why they don't work with everybody else to stop makin' it so hot.  It's driving us crazy.  That's why my people we keep comin' here much as we do.  We don't really want to, but they keep drivin' us out of where we come from. 

Myself:             If you really don't want to come here, why do you still come? 

Katrina:          Oh child, please don't even act like we didn't rescue our folk, ‘cause you know we did.

Myself:             What are you talking about?  Thousands of people died in New Orleans, so how could you have rescued them?  In the lower Ninth Ward, nobody was rescued! 

Katrina:          If you'd shut up and let me finish, you'd see how them people lived in that Ninth Ward there and realize that I rescued them.  That boy there, Kanye West told you why I rescued them.  So why everybody wanna fight like hell when they gon' die anyway and can't do a thing to change what that boy said?  All them people there that lived in the Lower Ninth Ward were neglected in this place here.  Nobody cares about them.  A country with a trillion dollar budget and can't even afford to take care of their own people.  Just basic needs.  They wanna spend billions every which way to make even more than the millions they got.  So who would wanna be those bastards?  Not me.  But I saved them bastard children in the Ninth Ward.  You ‘member the Word of God that say, ‘To Live Is Christ And To Die Is Gain.'  I saved ‘em.  More than Creflo Dollar or T.D. Jakes could ever do.  Bump that ‘ol altar call mess, I take ‘em as they are.  But lemme tell you: the way they go ain't even close to what Daddy got for Mister Bush.   That's why you know, I did my part.  I just had to blow off the covers - see the world don't know this fool Bush like we know ‘em.  That's why I done shamed him.  Trust me, them people got much more to gain now than before I came.  Much more.  If you don't believe me, look at what they're doin' to New Orleans now.  How they gon' remake the whole place with their no bid contracts goin' to Halliburton?  Ya'll read already how I was too weak to break the seventeenth street and the London avenue levees. 

Myself:             What do you mean?  What happened to the levees?

Katrina:          Listen to the truth tellers around ya'll.  I said truth tellers.  Don't just expect me to tell you.  My surge came from the Gulf of Mexico, not Lake Pontchartrain.  Most of the city was flooded from the north and rear by Lake Pontchartrain.  They talkin' ‘bout some barges hit them levees.  That's a lie.  Everybody ‘round there like Mister Joe Edwards Junior will tell you that wasn't no barge.   They talkin' ‘bout my surge overtoppin' it.  Now, that's a lie ‘cause Paul Kemp from L-S-U said the levee's ‘bout fourteen foot high, and my surge only went up eleven foot high.  If nobody bothered them levees, them levees woulda never been flooded.  But I tell you, somethin' happened.

Myself:             What happened?  

Katrina:          Them Army Corps of Engineers got the answer, but I ain't gon' say nothing since it looks like they gon' say I ‘played the race card.'  You listen to that Mister Joe Edwards Junior, or that Paul Kemp or John M. Barry and you mark my words:  Something happened.  Poor Mayor Nagin.  I ain't mean to cause so much mess on him.  But he oughta tell everybody that them levees was the responsibility of the federal government right there since the Army Corps of Engineers was in charge of them levees.  Nagin answers to them.  When I passed, I was too weak to break them, but all of a sudden they broke.  Sooner or later, I know ya'll a put two an' two together.   But see ya'll gotta remember, my Daddy don't sleep.  Ya'll might, but He don't.  Ever.  I'm so glad I won't even be around to see that mess. 

Myself:             You said you come from a long line, which line? 

Katrina:          Child, don't show your ignorance!  You oughta be slapped if you don't know I come from where your parents came from:  the west coast of Africa.  You oughta know I came the same way your ancestors came over three hundred years ago, boy, against my will!  You oughtta know that!  Ain't no coincidence that I come from the neglected land to bring my people back! Where I come from is where they will return.  But see, we keep havin' to come here ‘cause ya'll here wanna make the rest of the world catch hell for what ya'll know ya'll ain't supposed to do.  As long as they wanna mess this place up with all them greenhouse gases, we gon' keep comin' ‘til we blow up everything, and show them really for what they are.   It don't matter what they wanna call us, either.  Back in the last century, they wanna give us names and it was only just recently they wanna give us female names, but if you want I'll tell you my real name:  Global Warming. 

Myself:             Well, what can I do to stop you from coming here against your will? 

Katrina:          Do your part, honey, like I did mine.  Spread the word.  Challenge the Army Corps of Engineers.  Stop greenhouse gases by minimizing running your car engine.  Information is power, but most of all:  do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  I don't know why these fools don't seem to get this yet. 

Myself:             Wow.  Thank you for your time, Katrina.   

Rhone Fraser is an independent journalist who writes and produces for Pacifica WBAI radio's Arts Magazine Program.  He is currently a graduate student who has recently written a documentary play on the life of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and can be reached at [email protected].

is published every Thursday.