As an aboriginal person with any kind of dam, whether it's run of the river or not, we have to look at it closely and decide what effects it will have on us.

Our river is one of the safest rivers in the state, if not the U.S..

Because of the dam, the water was so calm you could paddle up and down. The rest of the river is a one-way river.

The Mississippi River is always the failsafe. You can always find bald eagles below the lock and dam.

How far the white bass run up the Sabine is dependent on the river flow. It is not going to keep them from spawning. A lot of people may not know that they will spawn in the lake on wind-blown points. It is going to impact angler success.

This is an evolving kind of situation, and what might have been appropriate a week ago might not be appropriate this week. Having Ellen DeGeneres as the host, who is from New Orleans, sets the tone right away that there will be a balance. One of the first things Ellen said to me after Katrina hit was that we still need to make people laugh without forgetting about what's going on and not in any way taking away from its meaning.