August 29th is a hard day for many people in southeast Louisiana, especially in St. Bernard Parish and much of New Orleans where Hurricane Katrina hit the hardest 20 years ago.

Many folks don’t like to talk about it, let alone think about it or even hear about it.

A popular meme being shared via social media across the region states as much: “Actually I don’t wanna remember Katrina.”

And I can’t hardly blame my sister and brother Katrina victims/survivors/claimants/muckers.

Even if you had the means and/or good sense to leave (I spent my last hours in pre-Katrina St. Bernard begging the stubborn to evacuate and in one case physically carrying my grandfather kicking and screaming out of his house), you were at that moment leaving the world you knew and would be returning to one literally turned upside down and covered in mold.

Everything would be different and never the same.

In the case of St. Bernard where the white caps (there’s video) reached 15 feet above grade, you didn’t realize it at the time but you had slept for the last time in your bed as you began the arduous plunge into the crawling contraflow to parts unknown.

But beyond our own personal worlds that would change forever, what else has…or amazingly enough, has not?

The good news is our coastal protection has been vastly improved.  Fulfilling his September 2005 Jackson Square pledge, President George W. Bush invested over 14 billion in upgraded levees, flood barriers, and other components to protect the region from another Katrina.

This system has been tested in the years since its completion and in tribute to the president following through on his promise, I had a bill passed naming the flood barrier in his honor.

Also, the closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet is another welcome change.

This shipping channel hacked through the northern perimeter of St. Bernard Parish’s wetlands invited the scourge of saltwater intrusion into our interior killing our natural barriers to storm surges.

Further, the widening of the channel from the wake of large shipping vessels increased our exposure and was an expressway for the storm surge that inundated St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans East, and the 9th Ward.

The Federal government further invested many more billions in rebuilding critical facilities and infrastructure across the New Orleans area, from fire stations to schools.

But what hasn’t changed?

Primarily the political culture of New Orleans and to a degree the state as a whole.

The election (and re-election) of LaToya Cantrell as mayor was not a sign of progress or a demonstration that New Orleans was serious about becoming a thriving southern city of commerce like a Nashville, but rather was fine being Jackson, Mississippi on steroids.

And speaking of facilities, the Municipal Auditorium, which has sat unrepaired in the heart of the city since Katrina, just had a renovation groundbreaking this week.

How this work was not completed in the time of three two-term mayoral administrations is inexplicable.  By comparison One World Trade Center in Manhattan’s financial district was completed 13 years after 9/11.

Finally, there is the state’s political culture.

Katrina marked the downfall of the post-Civil War permanent Democratic dominance of Louisiana.  Democrats did squeak out two gubernatorial victories that can be attributed more to a failure of GOP politics in those instances than political realignment.

Every statewide office, both US Senators, and both chambers of the legislature are controlled by Republicans – the latter with super-majorities.

But is this a case of there being a genuine change of political mindset or a merely just a different side reaping the spoils?

Has Louisiana truly repented of its sordid political ways, or have we just stopped off at the confessional booth on the way to the brothel?

Twenty years ago, the world changed as we knew it due to forces beyond our control. But much of what was within our ability to change has not. Katrina was the catalyst for not just a rebuild but a reset. Instead of hustling forward we shuffled in place politically and economically.

Being the only southern state hemorrhaging population while our neighbors enjoy growth and prosperity Louisiana still has a lot more work to do to move on to stop folks from moving out.

The post-Katrina levees are taller and stronger but the pre-Katrina politics with the exception of the details are still largely the same.