Secede!

A Saturday letter in the Times-Picayune, and another on Wednesday call for Louisiana to secede and form "Saudi Acadiana." I think association with the Saudi family is not a great idea, but I've called for a mock secession here. Let's do it out in Jackson Square. Who's with me!

"Saudi Acadiana" should secede:

"60 Minutes" has proven once again what a joke of a program it really is. To feature St. Louis professor Tim Kusky and his unsubstantiated claims about the future of New Orleans is irresponsible at best.

The rest of the country heats their homes upon our backs and yet, when we are almost destroyed by a natural disaster because the feds have not done their job of providing levee protection, they blame us for being stupid enough to live below sea level. And they tell us to simply move.

We are victims of geographic discrimination. And yet they all absorb our culture, food and music -- and suck our land dry for natural resources.

Wake up, Louisiana! We are the Saudi Arabia of America . . . Saudi Acadiana! Let's secede, sell our resources back to the United States and build our own damn protection system.

Maureen Brennan McConnell
New Orleans

Let's go; no one will notice (Letters, 11/30/05):

Re: "'Saudi Acadiana should secede," Your Opinions, Nov. 28.

For weeks I've been telling anyone who would listen that someone ought to get France on the phone and ask if they'll have us back. But I like Maureen Brennan McConnell's idea much better. Why not go it alone?

If the federal government's plan is to ignore us to death, chances are they won't even notice when we leave. And as a destitute foreign country we'd qualify for foreign aid! Then we could join OPEC and cozy up to Venezuela, the only other OPEC member in this hemisphere. That should get us noticed in Washington. But we wouldn't need the foreign aid by then because we could be selling all our oil and natural gas to Japan.

Oh yeah, I forgot. We're still part of it, aren't we? Pity. I'd feel much safer traveling on a Louisiana passport.

Gary Fleming
New Orleans