Every city is important to America. So, you simply believe that nothing is a local issue.
The quiet resistance New Orleanians practiced during the Butler regime, that became a model for the rest of the South when we also fell after the war, and in fact, served as the inspiration for Joe Cain's infamous wagon stand
Huh? All those people are dead. That is a silly reason to prop up the bums that live there now.
Most people don't realize this, but the only reason Mardi Gras survived the Civil War is because in the cities that had had it before the war, it was decided that continuing the tradition was one way to thumb their noses at federal authorities without committing an act that Union officials could create trumped up charges for.
Yeah, so?
Also, the simple fact that, New Orleans actually can be saved, you can rebuild the levees in a way where this never happens again,
Of course, they haven't promosed that it will protect a CAT 5, so you are wrong. There can always be a bigger storm.
if you combine this with a wetland renourishment program in the areas to the immediate south of St. Bernard, you could effectively eliminate the danger of this ever happening again.
I disagree, but still, why should I pay someone else's costs?
New Orleans has flooded from hurricanes before, and this never happened. Wihtout the levees, it would have been like Betsy, like 1947, like 1915, like Last Island, and many hurricanes before that.
So you are saying they are better off without the Levee's? Fine with me. Don't rebuild them.
The problem with the levees were that inherent design flaws existed which caused them to fail. After all, the New Orleans Cat 5 disaster scenario never involved the the levees breaking, it involved water higher than the levees topping them, creating the dreaded bowl situation. No one expected that the levees would crack, thereby causing a flood of water equalization.
So let's not rebuild the Levees.
It makes as much sense today to rebuild New Orleans today as it did to rebuild Galveston 105 years ago.
Did people from around the country pay to rebuild Galveston, or was it mostly a local affair?
While I don't think New Orleans will ever be like it was (this could be a good thing) it is still vital to our economy,
How so? You don't need the whole city in order to have ports for river barges.
the city is an economic and cultural asset,
That's a matter of opinion.
and it would be a tragedy to let it slide into history.
So says you. I disagree. I couldn't care less if it goes away. It has been a dump for well over 100 years.
On the streets of New Orleans, you see the way society used to be,
That is not a good thing. By that standard, it would be okay to have a city where slavery is ok.
the way that neighborhoods used to look like, in many ways, New Orleans never really left it's antebellum mindset,
Fair enough?
and that is an asset to America.
Why? You are full of personal opinions.
The fact that New South banking interests were able to build skyscrapers and co-exist with all the varied components of what was the epitome of the Old South, it was an important message.
What is that message? I've never heard it.
Now maybe it would be smarter to trash all levies, and go back to the situtation where we let the city flood once every 10 years, and let the sedimentation deposit.
Sounds good to me.
Thats a possibility.
I hope so.
But it would be sad to desert a city that meant so much to America. A city which had as much to do as anything else with keeping Huey Long from becoming President.
Well hey, I'm not deserting it. If the people that live there don't want to desert it, that's fine with me.
In short, you simply like New Orleans and want it rebuilt, and want to take money out of the pockets of everyone else to do it.
"In short, you simply like New Orleans and want it rebuilt, and want to take money out of the pockets of everyone else to do it. "
No, but the simple fact is, the money will be spent on something, if it is not spent on this pork project, will be spent on another pork project.
If the money is not spent here, it will be spent in some other way. We once had a line item veto, but the Supreme Court overruled it, so for the near future, we're stuck with a pork barrel government that spends our money like it will never run out, so if theyre going to do it, at least spend money on something that has more national implications.
And I never said I liked New Orleans, as it was before the storm it was polluted, crime-ridden, somewhat trashy and somewhat arrogant. Only recently did they begin to publically acknowledge that they didn't start Mardi Gras. This being said, cesspool as it may have been, it was important to our nations economy, and our physche, and it, more than anything else, has helped define the identity of the central Gulf Coast. New Orleans is to the Gulf Coast what Los Angeles is to the West Coast, what Atlanta is to much of the South, etc etc.
And I believe on a cost-benefit analysis, the benefits of rebuilding outweigh the costs. You disagree with me, this is America, you are entitled to disagree, and I'll respect you for it. I'm just laying out my opinion on it.