Early morning musings

Every day, I see something new on the TV about New Orleans. Every day, I have periods where I think this isn't real. Mostly, those times are when I'm in bed with my eyes closed. It's easy to be in denial when your eyes are closed. But every day I open my eyes, and every day I'm faced with the shock that this is real. You'd think that after a week and a half, I couldn't be surprised any more. This is easily the most surreal thing I've ever experienced.

It's funny how far that city has burrowed itself under my skin, even considering how little I've seen of it. I've never been to the Garden District, and who knows how much that area will be changed. I've never been to the historic cemeteries, and who knows how many of them will still be there and intact after this. I've never been to any of the few marshes we actually have, and I know how much they have been decimated by this.

I have been to the Quarter and seen those beautiful buildings, and it hurts to think how many of them may be structurally damaged. I've made friends with one shop owner on Rue Dumaine, the amazing "Root Queen" Anna, and I have no idea where she is or how her Quarter shop and Quarter home have fared. I have friends who live in Slidell, the town on the north shore of the lake that was center-punched by Katrina's eye. Rachel and George had just moved in to their home three weeks before the hurricane, and I have no idea where they are. Did they stay to be with their new home, or did they leave and go to Texas? I know Chad and his family are safe via news from Barney, but Chad's home -- the one he lived in with his grandparents, the one his grandfather built all on his own -- was completely destroyed.

And then I see two Wichita tourists on the news whining about how they were "forgotten" by rescuers, about how disgusting the native survivors were. At least you had a home to go to and money to get there, you self-centered jerks.

And then there were the sanctimonious assholes sitting in front of me on the airplane from Memphis, judging the entire city of NOLA by what they saw on Bourbon Street, talking about how New Orleans "got what it deserved" because it's full of naked women and drug dealers on every corner and piss and filth, that it was "God's judgment" for being a city full of sin and nothing more. First of all, if you're so religious and righteous, what the hell are you doing on Bourbon Street in the first place? Second of all, if you'd've gotten off of Bourbon Street and on to Royal and Chartres and across Esplanade into the Marigny (all within walking distance of Bourbon), you'd've seen the dozens of talented street performers and the many art studios and the amazing array of music and the independent bookstores and the cafes and so many other things. You could've had incredible dinners on St. Peters Avenue or St. Louis Avenue, you could've had beignets and coffee on Decatur Street and then walked along the river, you could've gone to the aquarium or the zoo, you could've bought imported Belgian chocolate on Chartres Avenue and maybe an autographed poster on Royal Street, you could've seen an independent film at the theater in the Shops at Canal Place, you could've ridden the streetcar -- all within a mile to a mile-and-a-half radius. Only on Bourbon do you see women flashing their breasts outside of Mardi Gras, and very rarely in that defined zone do you see drug dealers. Yes, there are bad sections in ANY city, but to judge an entire city by one street or one section is unfair and outright wrong.

The terrible things that are happening in the aftermath of the hurricane aren't necessarily a reflection of how depraved the city is but of how desperate the citizens are. For all its fame and tourism, NOLA is a wretchedly poor city with a corrupt government that doesn't do much of anything to help raise its populace out of the gutter. The current administration talks incessantly about helping third world countries improve themselves, but what about the third world equivalents we have in our own country? All you have to do is watch CNN or Fox News to see that we have the third world right here.

Sorry, I know you have been wanting to hear about my time in Memphis and yada yada yada, but this is what plays through my mind over and over at night when I should be sleeping.