00:00It's important for me to be here, not just me, because I'm a local and the things that
00:23have happened, man, it's just because I know I could have been out here if I wasn't helping
00:29my sister out and whatever I had to do for my family at that time.
00:35But I know if I wouldn't have been doing that, then I would have been out here myself, you
00:39know, either I would have been working or just out here with some friends or whatever
00:43like that.
00:44So I know it could have been me, it could have been anybody, but we also had a friend
00:49named Tasha and she passed and the tragedy that happened.
01:15He was fun to be around, he was a great friend, he was a great to hang around with, we had
01:19good talks, he always had great advice, make sure I stayed safe because whenever I was
01:24on the street too, he would be a great sense of like hanging out, making sure I would stay
01:28safe, just great all around guy.
01:32Right now, I'm lost for words really, this is a tragedy where we got to deal with all
01:37this violence from all around the world, why here?
01:43This is a tourist city and people come from all over the world for our music, our food,
01:49our energy, but there's residents here who after everybody leaves, after all of this
01:55is over, we still have to deal with this.
01:58And I think one of the best support that the families could get is to show that the residents
02:03of New Orleans is here, we stand by y'all, we support y'all, we are so sorry that this
02:08happened here, like it's terrible, it's terrible, but it's important to show that it's more
02:20to New Orleans than just the tourism.
02:23People live here, I live right down the street, people pass that area every day.
02:38I think that we should honor and pay tribute to those young lives that got lost, all those
02:44young kids that came and celebrate New Year's, I think that's important for people to remember
02:52what times we're living at, the times, the bad times we're living at and a bunch of crazy
02:59people out there trying to harm innocent lives.
03:02I feel that people were not expecting this and to start the year like this, it's overwhelming
03:08and we feel very sorry for all the victims here.
03:13The families, people that they left behind, exactly.
03:19So it was, it's definitely something that we need to value, right, and understand and
03:26just feel like, I don't know, like sometimes you just come in here and then you say goodbye
03:31to your family, you say we'll be here tomorrow and then you don't, you don't have fear the
03:35next day, so it's horrible.
03:37We booked our trip to New Orleans in May and then we heard about this awful thing that
03:42happened on the news on New Year's Day and we almost canceled our plans to come because
03:47we were afraid.
03:48But we attended mass tonight at the cathedral and the priest said that we need to have hope
03:54over fear and so I think that's why we came down tonight and just to keep all of these
04:00people in our memories and that New Orleans stays strong and that there's always hope.
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