Just go home?

What looks like an unsigned editorial in the June 30, 2006 issue of The Daily News.

Hateful stuff. But then, Bogalusa has a sordid history of hate, and a distrust of "outsiders" which some older residents blame all those old problems on. "Problems" like fair treatment and integration. A reputation like that dies a hard, slow, noisy death.

What did the charming Daily News editor tell us?

T here were two drive-by shootings and an arson within a 24-hour period in our community on Wednesday and all have been tied back to New Orleans.

Allrighty. I guess people came up here from The Big Easy and raised some heck, huh?

In the arson, a New Orleans resident took a cab to the apartment of his ex-girlfriend, broke in and started a fire.

Took a cab all the way from New Orleans?? 60-something miles? Wow.

According to Bogalusa police, all those involved in the shootings - with the exception of victim Dagrick Moses - were "New Orleans transplants."

Big effin' deal. There are a whole lot of folks in the area who moved here from somewhere else. Apparently since Katrina, there are 8,000 to 10,000 of them.

Last time I checked, the people who are considered to have founded Bogalusa moved to the area from somewhere else. Stop the presses!

We don't need New Orleans' mess that has spilled all over the Southeast and Southwest in our community. Goodness knows, we have enough problems of our own without that brought along by transplanted thugs.

Hate, hate, hate. Even though there's a bit of a disclaimer in the second sentence - "we have enough problems of our own" - there's a clear implication that things were rollin' along just fine before those dang "New Orleans thugs" moved here.

You know, those "transplants." Those "come-heres."

Jeez, out of several thousand people, I betcha a few of them were bad guys. Ya think?

Oh, and Daily News? The correct term for people who have been living here long enough to vote is residents.

Residents, yes. Many of whom are sick and tired of the slurs against those who weren't born in Bogalusa, the town that smells like a fart.

Perhaps they'll register to vote and get some new blood in office. Hopefully, they'll refuse to buy the local rag, too.

Sheesh.