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Two years ago it would have been unthinkable that America would let one of its most important historical cities die a slow, agonizing death while elected officials and bureaucrats bicker about whom to blame.

Yet here we are in 2007, New Orleans is gradually slipping from the public eye to the back burner, and our leaders continue squabbling while failing to articulate an inspired path to recovery.

New Orleans’ history alone makes it worth every effort, every creative idea and every human resource to revive it. It’s the city where African and European people learned to mix and absorb each other’s cultures, and it birthed jazz.

Of course, New Orleans was chronically ill before Hurricane Katrina swamped it. In fact, letting it die slowly this way is the easy way out of the intractable social ills of poverty, illiteracy, crime and despair.

Yet for all its dysfunction, New Orleans still throbbed with life and creativity right up until Katrina. It was a living, surviving example of an American city with the riches and culture of a centuries-old European one. It’s the city that fed our stomachs, our minds and our souls.

Now, just when New Orleans needs daring, visionary leaders, its mayor and our governor seem maddeningly more concerned with blaming others than inspiring and charting a course for its salvation.

Entire neighborhoods remain desolate wastelands, their refugees establishing ever-deeper roots elsewhere.

The resolve of diehard New Orleanians is shaken daily by persistent crime and lethargic financial aid programs snagged in red tape.

New Orleans leaders, in their arrogance, have rejected some outside help, including from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

Now, 18 months on, New Orleans’ officials seem angry and in disarray, even lashing out against plans Baton Rouge is making for its own future. That’s unproductive.

The American Experience documentary, New Orleans, which aired on PBS in February, asserted that Katrina forced America to accept that America has a massive, black underclass that lives in harm’s way.

It’s time to confront the root causes of poverty and despair, to go forward as a society committed to making our cities better.

“New Orleans’ promise,” said historian Lawrence N. Powell, “is that it can teach America to be America, if anybody’s listening.”

The catch is New Orleans can’t survive as a welfare city. Its leaders must prove they can lead themselves to revitalization. They might take a queue from Lake Charles, where the mayor and leaders have set a good example of progress through teamwork.

It’s time Baton Rouge and Louisiana stand up for New Orleans, to hold elected officials accountable for results, and to see that New Orleans is given every opportunity to heal.