Inside the Superdome: I can see the rows of white cots

NEW ORLEANS -- Sitting on the second-level of the Louisiana Superdome, in the press box and looking down at the field, I have a hard time escaping the images of people sleeping on this same stadium floor a little more than a year ago.

It was the bedroom for the people who had nowhere else to go during and after Hurricane Katrina.

I can still see photos and news footage of the row upon row of white cots occupied mainly by low-income black people -- the ones without means to get out and the ones initially abandoned as second-class citizens by the Bush administration in their most dire hour of need. Until it became a political hot potato, that is.

At the point of the administration's inaction, I had sent an email to John Kerry's Senate office, telling him I had voted for him and imploring him to step into the leadership vacuum, raise awareness and get help to New Orleans. He didn't. I never got a reply.

It's sometimes hard to take seriously a football game.

But I've been told many times in a walk through the sections of downtown and the French Quarter on Saturday that the Saints mean a great deal and symbolize the city's rebirth.