Posted on 09/15/2005 5:20:08 PM PDT by cd jones
I could (and probably should) write a whole essay about this because with all the focus on New Orleans, I haven't heard one person who really explained it.
This country is full of places to reinvent yourself (Hollywood, Las Vegas, Washington DC) step back in time (Birmingham, Cheyenne, Omaha) step way back in time (Leadville, Tombstone, Dodge City) step forward in time (New York, Los Angeles)
And if you're trying to find yourself or find God or anything along those lines the list is just endless (Rocky Mountains, North Pacific, Black Hills, Key West, etc)
But if a person was running from himself sooner or later he found New Orleans. Generations of people and even plants and animals who made their home in a city they were not supposed to be in, a below sea level city which not supposed to be where it was either.
And I've heard so many people doing interviews in the last few weeks talking about the good times they had when they visited the Quarter and that whole Bon Temps Rouler feeling they loved.
And they don't seem to understand that the reason the good times seem to roll a little different in New Orleans is because the whole thing was one big hurricane party from the beginning, and every wild night carried a shadow of being the last one.
The mystery of New Orleans that they felt but couldn't define was the contrast of a place so grounded in time and yet so constantly temporary. No place else has that.
Leave New Orleans alone, don't tear anything down that doesn't fall on it's own and don't scrub anything left standing so much that you make it fall. Let people go home if they want to (This is America isn't it?)
Build up the levees and damned what the Mississippi River would do if it were allowed to flow naturally; The City of New Orleans is as fragile and valuable as any wetlands anyone's trying to protect.
The Delta's been gathering the toxic waste of middle America for the last 200 years, this isn't anything new.
In the 1800's they buried yellow fever victims in those same New Orleans levees and when they broke that time, people long dead washed up in the streets.
This is just another episode in time. Some day those levees will break again, that's how you know it's New Orleans.
I told her, after reading this, she should write essays or opininion columns on things she cares about.
agree or not, at least it's passionate
==========================
I agree with her!
But alas...its not to be....its become one huge political
rallying point...real estate boom, the poor shipped safely out of the state, and the vulchers circling to get what they can out of reconstruction....but not at prevailing wages...those have already been done away with...so no one's going to get enough to sustain a family and pay insurance and house payments.
Cool little sister Bump!!!!!!!!
Tell your sister that was fun to read.
"cool little sister"
that's what i think
thanks
I've got a cool big brother...so I know what ya mean.
(well, on the flip side of it, that is!) :)
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