In response to Our Opinion in Friday’s newspaper — I am a Katrina survivor.

I was born and raised in the USA, so each time I see the word evacuee associated with Katrina, I’m offended.

The word reminds me of someone fleeing a war from a foreign country, or leaving a prison camp out of the USA. I am a survivor, not an evacuee, who is very grateful to all the kind and generous people who housed, fed an clothed my entire family.

Most are gone, but I’m still here, willingly, not because I have to be. I love it here and the people, my neighbors, and the countless new friends who came to me and treated me as such. They treated me not as an evacuee, but as a person in need.

And they continue to do so in good faith.

Appreciatively, you can call us friends and neighbors.

Patricia Hackett

Natchez resident