Resolve and Recreation Still Strong on Bourbon Street

Somebody forgot to tell the French Quarter that this town is dead. Because the regulars at Johnny White's Sports Bar & Grill on Bourbon Street were having none of the talk about their city being the new Chernobyl, a ghost metropolis never to rise again. Even if the bureaucrats in Washington and Baton Rouge want to shut the place down and move everybody out.

"It's my property. I have a right to die in my property," bartender Larry Hirst said as he served up a pair of Heinekens to two female patrons Thursday night. The politicians and disaster planners, Hirst added, were "too damn distant to realize that people in the French Quarter, since we're high and dry, we have a right to be here."

The French Quarter always has been a world apart, even in a city famous for its contrarian ways. Spared the worst effects when the hurricane roared across the coast nearly two weeks ago, the Quarter has become something of a holdout for free spirits who refuse to abandon the flood-ravaged city.

We provide a place for people to go and relax and forget about their ruined homes, their dead neighbors, whatever," he said.

"You can't kick all the queers out of the Quarter," said Denny Huppert, who was drinking with his friend Shawn Queen at Johnny White's. For Huppert, Queen and other gay men, the Quarter is a separate village within the city, a bastion of tolerance in the belly of the Deep South.

"The French Quarter has always been unique people," Huppert said. "You can walk down the street holding another guy's hand in the middle of the night."

....some of their friends had left the city only because they were running out of HIV-related drugs and needed to refill their prescriptions.

Somebody forgot to tell the French Quarter that this town is dead...

The "French Quarter" is on the site of Native American villages which date back many hundreds..., if not thousands of years! "Old New Orleans" is "Old" because it is the highest ground and has been for thousands of years!

In any flood-prone area, the "high ground" is developed first..., is very valuable..., and will survive! People who move into lower ground (whether placing their faith in levees or not) are gambling... and EVENTUALLY LOSE!

This is true whether we are discussing New Orleans or any other settlement along a waterway OR OCEAN!

Be assured, New Orleans will rebuild (at great national expense) and..., in less than a century, or descendants will see the same destruction and face the high cost in human lives and treasure..., yet again!!!

We, collectively, view these events as "rare events" when, in fact, over earth's history, such "disasters" are merely PAR FOR THE COURSE!

I agree. Further, those of us living in this period of time will see more disaster than ever before. It's the birth pains everybody. Jesus Christ is our savior. We have been given the gift of salvation by the grace of God. True Christianity, the lessons that Jesus Christ taught the human race to live peacefully in this world, is the only dependable way of life. I see a country holding tight to all things tangible and basing their existence on systems of american society. "Even if the wind blows away my bank, my job, and my possessions, "some one" will come and take care of it. I will be protected, thats why I pay taxes"...
We all have a choice. We can smile, wave, forgive, act selflessly, or we can succeed, obtain, and be filled with power from the energy of climbing over the feelings and trust of good hearts, only to increase our status.
The events that have occurred following the disaster of hurricane Katrina sadden me. It only shines light on the fact that this country we live in is not very American. It is up to we the people to keep this a free country, and I thank God that others feel the same way I do and have a plan. As for those who continue to live in the French Quarter, they ought to have a right to stay there. The first report I heard about these people, didn't mention homosexuals or HIV drugs. But we all have free will to live whatever lifestyle we want, whether right or wrong. They are American citizens and from what I've seen have cleaned up the neighborhood as best they can. They've worked out a barter system, trading in alcohol and other more necessary supplies. I could care less if what they are surviving on has been "looted" from the remains of stores or not. The whole system of cash and retail merchandise has been destroyed with the physical structure of these businesses. It is yet another example of "the people" working for "the people" when their government has failed. It has been said that one of the only good things that come from a disaster, are the bonds that are built by those who survive.

Fox News had a story about how two Louis Vuittin handbags were bought with the issued debit cards.

A leftist conspiracy theorist would say that Bush ordered those large-sum debit cards issued because he and Karl Rove knew that they would be abused in this way. This would be an object lesson to the American taxpayers, so that they would be less willing to have so much of their money confiscated to be wasted. Then, when the public opinion has reached the right point, Karl Rove will signal to Bill Frist that the time is ripe for a vote to repeal the death tax.

Just wait. Some lefty will say something like that with a straight face. They will earnestly believe it, and will see nothing wrong with the fact that two victims wasted your tax dollars on outrageously expensive status symbol handbags.

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