I admit I watch far too much television at times, but who in America doesn't?

Its relatively cheap, it lets you go mindless for an evening, and its "comfort" food for a mushy brain.

I like to watch a variety of things, and I do like to stay abreast of whatever is the "it thing" at the current time.

"Nurse Jackie" is a real hoot. I love "Drop Dead Diva", and "Project Runway" helps fill the gap most of the time.

"True Blood" on HBO is GREAT!
But....
I DETEST "Treme" on HBO.

There...I said it. I am a traitor to the state of Louisiana! I can never set foot in New Orleans again. Not without hanging my head in great shame and wearing sackcloth with ashes upon my forehead.

I simply do not like the show. I find it "slow", and to be very honest, way too predictable. However, especially after the third episode of the first season, what really concerns me is the divisiveness the show seems to be causing in Louisiana. By this I mean the resentment by New Orleanians to the people of Baton Rouge that it is bringing to the surface.

I've been following the posting in the Times Picayune's website about the show, and I was totally blown away by the really hostile sentiments being posted there by New Orleanians about Baton Rouge and its citizens over what really appears to be perceived slights to New Orleanians in the days, weeks and months after Katrina.

No one can ever understand what those who remained in the city underwent when Katrina hit in August 2005, except for themselves. No one can ever fault the survivors of Katrina anywhere on the Gulf coast for feeling such loss after all they went through, and the loss of precious lives and the disruption of their lives then and as long as they live.

But...

They were given assistance immediately from their neighbors throughout the state of Louisiana,and their friends all along the Gulf coast. Thousands from outside the New Orleans area opened their hearts, their homes, and their pocketbooks to begin to start the rebuilding process then and for the five years that have passed since the storm hit. I personally gave a lot of my personal life to the rescue effort in the immediate week after the storm, and I have never regretted a minute of it. And I saw countless others from around the state doing the same...

And just a few short weeks after Katrina spent its fury on the New Orleans area and the Gulf Coast, a great number of those same people who gave so much to help the Katrina effort, were put under the barrel of a second devastating storm named Rita. A great number of people in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas suffered great losses in that storm, and yet I am willing to bet people in the New Orleans area today probably can't even name that storm, or any of the area that was devastated by Hurricane Rita.

Which is why I am at a loss as to the outright hostility that I am seeing come out of the New Orleans area directed towards those of us that did so much then and are continuing to do so.

I really do not think those feelings were ever deserved, and I am very disappointed to see the vitriol being expressed now.