Walkin' to New Orleans
Last night after a movie (Mad Hot Ballroom) and dinner with Anne-Marie & Kevin I was talking with Tara about all this hurricane madness. We were comparing the response, or our responses, to this and to 9/11. I explained that although I was absolutely dumbstruck, confused and saddened by what happened on 9/11 this situation in New Orleans has angered me.
I spent a lot of time in this city, I know people there and to me it is a cultural foundation for America. There was an article in the Tennessean the other day in which Chris Thomas King (a Baton Rougian who's lived in New Orleans for awhile now) said there is no music in New Orleans right now. In a city that includes music in all aspects, even funerals, there is no music. That saddens me beyond belief. The energy of that city moves on the drumbeat...it's palpable.
What angers me is the seeming lackadaisical response from the federal gov't and probably the state too. It seems we were all lulled into "this was a bad hurricane but the worst is over" and then all hell broke loose. What the fuck?
I won't even go into the racial implications of this pattern of response but I will say that this is at the very least an extreme case of those that have shall keep and those that don't shall lose. If you had a car or money for a trip you got out of the city but if you don't have money for a trip and you just paid your rent...SORRY, you got to go to the Superdome.
There is no reason why a natural disaster and it's aftermath should be as chaotic and tragic as this in a country with as many resources as the US has.
I spent a lot of time in this city, I know people there and to me it is a cultural foundation for America. There was an article in the Tennessean the other day in which Chris Thomas King (a Baton Rougian who's lived in New Orleans for awhile now) said there is no music in New Orleans right now. In a city that includes music in all aspects, even funerals, there is no music. That saddens me beyond belief. The energy of that city moves on the drumbeat...it's palpable.
What angers me is the seeming lackadaisical response from the federal gov't and probably the state too. It seems we were all lulled into "this was a bad hurricane but the worst is over" and then all hell broke loose. What the fuck?
I won't even go into the racial implications of this pattern of response but I will say that this is at the very least an extreme case of those that have shall keep and those that don't shall lose. If you had a car or money for a trip you got out of the city but if you don't have money for a trip and you just paid your rent...SORRY, you got to go to the Superdome.
There is no reason why a natural disaster and it's aftermath should be as chaotic and tragic as this in a country with as many resources as the US has.
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