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esince you're so good at cut & paste research, here's a little for ya...

""I've been here over 30 years and I've never seen this level of reduction, said Al Naomi, project manager for the New Orleans district. I think part of the problem is it's not so much the reduction, it's the drastic reduction in one fiscal year. It's the immediacy of the reduction that I think is the hardest thing to adapt to. There is an economic ripple effect, too. The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.""

***

The following quote is from FactCheck.org. They are as close to a non-biased reference point as you could hope to find on the web.


Some critics are suggesting President Bush was as least partly responsible for the flooding in New Orleans. In a widely quoted opinion piece, former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal says that "the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature," and cites years of reduced funding for federal flood-control projects around New Orleans.

Our fact-checking confirms that Bush indeed cut funding for projects specifically designed to strengthen levees. Indeed, local officials had been complaining about that for years.

It is not so clear whether the money Bush cut from levee projects would have made any difference, however, and we're not in a position to judge that. The Army Corps of Engineers – which is under the President's command and has its own reputation to defend – insists that Katrina was just too strong, and that even if the levee project had been completed it was only designed to withstand a category 3 hurricane.

We suspect this subject will get much more attention in Congress and elsewhere in the coming months. Without blaming or absolving Bush, here are the key facts we've been able to establish so far:

Bush Cut Funding

Blumenthal's much-quoted article in salon.com carried the headline: "No one can say they didn't see it coming." And it said the Bush administration cut flood-control funding "to pay for the Iraq war."

He continues:

Blumenthal: With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico . But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

…By 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year…forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze.

We can confirm that funding was cut. The project most closely associated with preventing flooding in New Orleans was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Hurricane Protection Project, which was “designed to protect residents between Lake Pontchartrain and the Missisippi River levee from surges in Lake Pontchartrain,” according to a fact sheet from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (The fact sheet is dated May 23, long before Katrina). The multi-decade project involved building new levees, enlarging existing levees, and updating other protections like floodwalls. It was scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Over at least the past several budget cycles, the Corps has received substantially less money than it requested for the Lake Pontchartrain project, even though Congress restored much of the money the President cut from the amount the Corps requested.

In fiscal year 2004, the Corps requested $11 million for the project. The President’s budget allocated $3 million, and Congress furnished $5.5 million. Similarly, in fiscal 2005 the Corps requested $22.5 million, which the President cut to $3.9 million in his budget. Congress increased that to $5.5 million. “This was insufficient to fund new construction contracts,” according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project fact sheet. The Corps reported that “seven new contracts are being delayed due to lack funds” [sic].

The President proposed $3 million for the project in the budget for fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1. “This will be insufficient to fund new construction projects,” the fact sheet stated. It says the Corps “could spend $20 million if funds were provided.” The Corps of Engineers goes on to say:

Army Corps of Engineers, May 23: In Orleans Parish, two major pump stations are threatened by hurricane storm surges. Major contracts need to be awarded to provide fronting protection for them. Also, several levees have settled and need to be raised to provide the design protection. The current funding shortfalls in fiscal year 2005 and fiscal year 2006 will prevent the Corps from addressing these pressing needs.

The Corps has seen cutbacks beyond those affecting just the Lake Pontchartrain project. The Corps oversees SELA, or the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control project, which Congress authorized after six people died from flooding in May 1995. The Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans reported that, overall, the Corps had spent $430 million on flood control and hurricane prevention, with local governments offering more than $50 million toward the project. Nonetheless, "at least $250 million in crucial projects remained," the newspaper said.

In the past five years, the amount of money spent on all Corps construction projects in the New Orleans district has declined by 44 percent, according to the New Orleans CityBusiness newspaper, from $147 million in 2001 to $82 million in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
Posts: 5103 | Location: Austin Texas, baby | Registered: 22 June 2003Report This Post
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oh, and for the record, much of the Netherlands is below sea level, too. apparently the Dutch aren't so stupid though, as they've figured out it's more important to put money into fortifying their infrastructure than into a world wide war on fear...

now i'm left to wonder why i even wasted my time posting any of this that you, NANZAR, will never read because it was i who posted it. there is none so blind as she who will not see...


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
Posts: 5103 | Location: Austin Texas, baby | Registered: 22 June 2003Report This Post
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Of course I would read it Zoom. It's quite an indictment if it will stick. I find it hard to think that our government diverts funds from projects that are needed to fund wars. I know the US budget is a hard thing to really get a handle on though, maybe that is the case.

I just came across this, mayby you will find it heartening. It is a blog about a group of coffee lovers and their trip to New Orleans. They had a very nice time and the charm of the city shows in their story.

blog on Southern Coffee drinking
 
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quote:
Originally posted by Nanzar:
I find it hard to think that our government diverts funds from projects that are needed to fund wars. I know the US budget is a hard thing to really get a handle on though, maybe that is the case.


wow...you really find it hard to believe that the infrastrusture funding suffers when we're spendings hundreds of billions in Iraq & Afghanistan? you trust your gov't, specifically the Bush administration that much? or even trust information in Time over Factcheck...? i can't name all the names & cite quotes, but do some research into recent statements by New Orleans area U.S. Congressmen & Lousisiana Sentaor Landrieu. the 80% budget cut to funds allocated to complete the repairs to the levees in the area of the breaches is a number that's been cited in alot of reports i've heard (i get most of my news from NPR, but i've been reding, watching & listening all over the place about this). but maybe those cuts didn't go to fund tax cuts for the wealthy or the war...maybe it went to provide health care for the poor.

right...


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
Posts: 5103 | Location: Austin Texas, baby | Registered: 22 June 2003Report This Post
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I've never heard 80% cuts from non-biased sources. The PBS reports have said that about 30 million was asked for in the last round of budgets and 10 million was given. so that's 66 and 1/3 percent. Luisiana still gets the most funding for water projects in the country, and rightly so, since they have the most to contend with.

The problem of the erroding shoreline and the Mississippi delta is bigger than funding levees. Here is an article from todays NYT by a former state departmentof the interior under Clinton:

September 10, 2005
Make It an Island
By BRUCE BABBITT
Washington

AFTER the victims are interred and public officials held to account for the destruction of a great American city, Congress must determine what to rebuild and what to abandon to the encroaching waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

New Orleans will survive only as an island surrounded by miles of open water. It will take a national effort, led by our best scientists, engineers and city planners, to achieve even this reduced vision of an American Venice. We must take the time to redesign the city to function as an island, with an island infrastructure, including relocated streets, highways and utilities. The island will need higher, stronger seawalls and levees sufficient to withstand new threats, including the rising sea levels and bigger hurricanes spawned in warming Atlantic waters.

Sea levels are likely to rise two to three feet in this century. Coastal maps drawn from consensus estimates show that virtually all of the delta lands south of Baton Rouge and below Interstate 10 - some 5,000 square miles - will be submerged by the end of this century.

State and local officials are understandably in denial about the impending loss of so much Louisiana land and heritage. The depth of their paralysis is underlined by a recent program to collect discarded Christmas trees from New Orleans to stack on barrier islands against the tides.

In recent years state agencies assembled a $14 billion project called Coastal 2050. One of its proposals was to cut gaps in the Mississippi River levees, which would provide outlets for the river to deposit some of its sediment onshore to help rebuild the delta. This idea may help in a few areas, but it will do little to offset the vastly larger forces of a rising sea.

Other proposals in the package include building coastal barriers, plugging delta channels dredged by oil companies and re-vegetating barrier islands. But overall the Coastal 2050 projects have as much chance of success as King Canute commanding the tides to recede.

Congress should resist the urge to appropriate huge sums for piecemeal reconstruction efforts. Restoration of the city and the delta will be a national effort, and it should be guided by a national plan. Congress should charge a commission of our best scientists, engineers and planners to asses the alternatives, draw up a regional land plan and recommend a realistic course of action. (italics added)

Bruce Babbitt, a former secretary of the interior, is the author of the forthcoming "Cities in the Wilderness."
 
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I just found the conversation from last Friday with three journalists on The New Hour. It is a bit dated now but I assure you it is a riviting discussion. If you can use the real audio link it is well worth hearing too because mos tof what they say comes from the tone of voice they used.

Here is the link:
conversation about Katrina aftermath Friday Sept 2
 
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quote:
Originally posted by Nanzar:

Congress should resist the urge to appropriate huge sums for piecemeal reconstruction efforts. Restoration of the city and the delta will be a national effort, and it should be guided by a national plan. Congress should charge a commission of our best scientists, engineers and planners to asses the alternatives, draw up a regional land plan and recommend a realistic course of action.


too bad Congress didn't amass the scientists & allocate the funds to SAVE New Orleans instead of rebuilding her.


and your little panel discussion featured writers from Boston, Chicago & New York. have you listened to anything from people from New Orleans or Mississppi or the rest of the Gulf Coast region, or does the fact that they actually KNOW the city & suffer the losses make their opinions invalid? my whole aim in this has been to make you understand something about how the effected people feel about this. not some pundits and wonks who know nohting of the culture. you want to talk about this like it's just a political & economic & enrironmental issue. it's about people. generations of them. if anything in the panel discussion rang true to me it's this
This is indicative of our image of ourselves as Americans, our ability to help each other in times of need -- that transcends the ideological arguments and also as I mentioned that notion that if we can't take care of the least of these, how well can we take care of ourselves or our own families --


and perhaps by "taking care" we can do so in a forward-thinking preventative manner as opposed to a reactionary, after-the-fact diaster managment kind of way.

bottom line, i honestly don't give a hoot what you or the so-called experts quote think. New Orleans will be rebuilt and i personally plan to help do so. of course, i'm just one of those irrational, emotional people with actual personal involement to this crisis, so my opinion doesn't really count...


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
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The week after Hurricane Katrina hit, the media covered the thousands of low-income people trapped for lack of means to get out. Almost two weeks later, thousands still hadn't left, in many cases because official policy would not accept the bond between people and their nonhuman family members. Members of a frustrated rescue team simplified it for a "Dateline" news crew: They said people were refusing to be evacuated simply because "they won't leave their pets."

There is a class issue involved here. While Marriott hotels welcomed the pets of Katrina evacuees as "part of the family," people who had to rely on the Red Cross for shelter were forced to abandon that part of the family or attempt to ride out the storm. It cannot be denied that many poor people are dead as a result of "no pets" policies.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Patricia Penny, who wondered whether her son Billy had survived. She had begged him to leave, but he was afraid to abandon his animals. CNN showed the rescue of a family, including a dog, sitting on a rooftop as a boat pulled up. The boat left without the dog. Staying with a dog and risking their own lives is not an option for people who have children to provide for. The parents were given no choice but to abandon the dog, and to break their children's hearts. As they pulled away they all watched their trusting, confused and terrified canine family member alone on the roof.

At Red Cross shelters there are families that have lost their homes and all of their possessions but are thanking God that they are all safe. Others are frantic, unable to think of anything besides the slow deaths of beloved companion animals they were forced to leave on rooftops or at bus boarding points. One woman, with no other possessions left, offered her rescuer the wedding ring off her finger to save her dog, to no avail.

A young boy carried a dog in his arms as he tried to board a bus to the Houston Astrodome. Dogs were not allowed. The Associated Press story reported that "a police officer took one from a little boy, who cried until he vomited. 'Snowball, Snowball,' " he cried." In a similar story, an old woman, traveling alone except for the poodle in her arms, was forced to leave him behind to wander the streets. We have read other stories of elderly people forced to choose between their lifesaving medications or their life-affirming pets. CNN's Anderson Cooper even reported on a woman, legally blind, who for 10 days had been told that she could not take her service dog with her if she was evacuated. She had stayed put until the CNN cameras arrived and the police relented.

Many large hotel chains, aware of the human-animal bond, now allow guests of varied species. Sadly, those organizations on which we rely, not when on vacation but in life-or-death circumstances, are not up with the times.

The pets pulled from people's arms would not have taken seats meant for humans. There is no reasonable explanation for abandoning them. They were the last vestiges of sweetness, in some cases the only living family, of those who had nothing left. But the police officers were just following orders -- orders that reflect an official policy inconsistent with how people feel about their animals.

Red Cross shelters that do not have animal-friendly areas, or do not coordinate with humane groups to make sure that there are animal shelters nearby, are out of touch with the needs of a society in which 60 percent of families have pets and many view them as intrinsic members of the family.

As if these people haven't lost enough already..there's this...I know I, for one, would not be able to leave any of our dogs behind..
More understanding from the great "powers that be"
 
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quote:

The island will need higher, stronger seawalls and levees sufficient to withstand new threats, including the rising sea levels and bigger hurricanes spawned in warming Atlantic waters.

Sea levels are likely to rise two to three feet in this century.

This idea may help in a few areas, but it will do little to offset the vastly larger forces of a rising sea.


and why are the sea levels rising? let me thunk
 
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too bad Congress didn't amass the scientists & allocate the funds to SAVE New Orleans instead of rebuilding her.


I want so much to agree with you Zoom I really do, but the reason I listen to these non- biased pundits is because they don't have a sentimental stake in this.

The apparent reason that the coastline HAS suffered so much errosion is precisely because they tried to SAVE New Orleans. As a species, Humans fail sometimes. That's the bottom line.

Ripley Your essay was beautiful. Did you write it? Because with a little polishing it belongs in a publication somewhere. I think many people agree and are appalled at the outcome of that policy. It's another eye opening consequence of what happens when disasters of this magnitude are not avoided.

Zoom writes:
quote:
and perhaps by "taking care" we can do so in a forward-thinking preventative manner as opposed to a reactionary, after-the-fact diaster managment kind of way.


Amen, hurrah, and ohmygodyes to that!
 
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Nope, wish I cold take credit for it but..well, I too know how to cut and paste
 
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if you thnk people like Mike Brown (FEMA feeb) & newspaper colunists are unbiased, you are wrong. in any case, the people who will truly be doing the rebuilding will not be unbiased either.


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
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so that you might have a sense of perspective and understanding for those of us who know New Orleans...the history & culture links are especially informative.

MUSIC:
http://www.satchmo.com/

http://www.gumbopages.com/no-clubs.html

http://www.tipitinas.com/info/history.asp

FOOD:
http://gatewayno.com/cuisine/cuisine.html

http://www.nola.com/dining/?reviews

GENERAL CULTURE & HISTORY
http://www.gumbopages.com/#louisiana

http://www.gatewayno.com/history/histroy.html

http://www.icorp.net/carnival/history.htm

http://www.prairieghosts.com/neworleans.html


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
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yeah...W's pet pit bull was in town Saturday. there were some protesters, but no one here told him to go fuck himself like they did in Mississippi. i did see one sign that said "go FEMA yourself" though...


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
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Zoom- Thanks for the tour of New Orleans history and culture. I have a few unanswerd questions:
1. Where does the custom of singing and dancing at funerals come from?

2. What is the origin of the term "crescent city?"

3 Is lake Ponchitrain man-made, natural formed or a little of both?

4. What type of "space age industry" was taking place during the 80's and 90's to cause the problem of polution that was mentioned?

That last one you might not know, but it's important that the region have some kind of industry if it's going to be viable again.

I have heard that Austin might become the (permanent) home of the NO football team the Saints. Have you heard this?

This last question or comment is going to seem harsh but it's really meant sincerely. Why is it that so many people who escaped with only their lives are saying that they don't ever want to go back to New Orleans, and so many outsiders who seem only to love the city from afar want it rebuilt just the way it was?
 
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i'll answer you last 2 questions first...don't have time now but will field the others when i do...


it's San Antonio, not Austin that has been mentioned as a potential home for the Saints. the team owners have been contemplating a move for the team for a while--that's more a football discussion than a NO one, which i can also talk about as naseum, but not today. personally i don't think SA is a big enough market for an NFL team, as Texas already has 2 others.

the people you hear talking about not wanting to return to NO are in general poor people who see this as an opportunity for something better. at least the ones i've seen are. when you're dirst poor and suddently you lose what little you have only to barely escape with your life, and to be greeted with open arms, incredible sympathy & generous opportunity...well, i imagine it effects a person. it's easier to start over when you had next to nothing to begin with... and the ones i've actually spoken to that aren't poor are realistic about just how long it will be before NO is inhabitable again. but i can guarantee, they love the culture, and what it means to be from New Orleans as much as any of us.

ALOT of people who have left want back and want back now. i'm related to some of them. i can tell you it hasn't really set in with my aunts & uncles just how long it might be, if even, til they can go home. but they talk like it's a sure thing. alot of people who are from there but no longer live there want it restored because of how freaking special a place it is. that's what i've been trying to convey.

cultural specialness not withstanding, the U.S. needs NO rebuilt. it's the largest port in the country. it refines 1/4 of the oil imported into the country. a large amount of the nations chemical processing plants are located in the area. this isn't just about Mardi Gras & oysters on the half shell. there is going to be an economic impact from this that has yet to be reckoned...


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
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1. Where does the custom of singing and dancing at funerals come from?

i assume you mean a 'jazz funeral'
i can't say i know the answer to this one.. they're not that common

2. What is the origin of the term "crescent city?"

due to the curvature of the river, the city is shaped like a crescent

3 Is lake Ponchitrain man-made, natural formed or a little of both?

as far a i know it's natural.. i lived there 30 years and never heard differently
making a lake 26 miles across might be a bit difficult

4. What type of "space age industry" was taking place during the 80's and 90's to cause the problem of polution that was mentioned?

space shuttle fuel tank building.. i believe it moved to alabama though
(am i taking the space part too literally?)
 
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ALOT of people who have left want back and want back now. i'm related to some of them. i can tell you it hasn't really set in with my aunts & uncles just how long it might be, if even, til they can go home. but they talk like it's a sure thing.

I get this and I'm hearing it more and more. I think your are right about the people who were already living on the edge, they are seeing this as a chance to start over. Can't ignore the sheer terror they experienced as well from the flood though, I'm sure that plays a part in their thinking.

This cultural diaspora- Is it possible this could be seen as a good thing? If what you had was so special (and I'm not saying it wasn't) maybe it needs to get spread around a little. I just heard about all the musicians playing in Memphis lighting up the music scene on Beal St. That's just the coolest thing! I wish I could be there to hear it first hand. And I heard Austin is getting a similar influx of talent.

I'm sure there are other things; like extended families, staying put, taking life with a little jazz and fun. America could use this mindset too, don't you think? I would hope it doesn't get lost in the sauce as they say.

Tam Thanks for the answers. So the crescent is just for the shape? Ok. And the "space age" industry sounds right because they said it had moved.

That is one big lake, 26 miles! It must be left over from some major continental geologic fource.

BTW-I was in your city in summer 1975. As a New Yorker, used to the hustle and bustle of our major city, I was struck by the easy going pace and the fun of the place. But it was a big city too with a "big city" kind of scariness to it. That's true of course of many major cities when you aren't from there, but I just wanted to say it because there is so much talk about the "charm," which was there, but that wasn't all I felt.

I'm rambling but I think it's because I still can't get over the ambivalence I feel about rebuilding. I hear it and hear it but I can't get my heart to say GO GO GO! It's not up to me and as you say the people who care the most will make it happen and that's how it should be I guess.
 
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ok...this is where the whle "discussion" started...how TEH PLACE is a part pf the culture. this is a culture that always knew what just happened could happen. living with the constant threat that you're one big storm away from anhilation either makes you dark & fatalist, or it makes you thumb your nose and fate and let the good times roll--to celebrate life instead of anticpating death (which i think is at the eart of the jazz funeral...). the entire culture is imbued with that spirit. what's the French term...joyaux de vive ?

if you don't get it, you don't. i admit my sensitivity in this issue, but i still think you've been and continue to be insensitive in your sort of scab-picking at the negative and your strained search for the "charm" of New Orleans to make you care about the fact that a great American city has been nearly destroyed. i'm the kind of person who goes to remote places when i have time off...big cities are, as a rule, not my scene. but i didn't have to do research on New York City to feel a personal shock and loss from 9-11. last night i heard a line in refernce to the New Orleans Saints..."the Saints had a home field/that stretched from coast to coast..."

when all the bodies are collected...when the toxic muck is gone...when the rebuilding finally begins, and it will...then i think will be the time to offer your ambivalence. right now, i find it callous.


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
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ok...this is where the whle "discussion" started...how TEH PLACE is a part pf the culture. this is a culture that always knew what just happened could happen. living with the constant threat that you're one big storm away from anhilation either makes you dark & fatalist, or it makes you thumb your nose and fate and let the good times roll--to celebrate life instead of anticpating death (which i think is at the eart of the jazz funeral...).


This is just what makes the whole thing difficult to stomach when you are looking in from the outside because it looks like you want the rest of us to pay for your good times. Sure, there is a good reason to have a city there, the trade and the industry are a vital interest, but has any one bother to look for ways that make better sense in managing those functions without putting 500,000 people at risk?

All cities follow the flow of humans, it's their nature, but at some point reality needs to set in. Saving the "culture" can not be made to be more important than building a structure that is reasonable. New Orleans is no longer "crescent" shaped because of over building. We have that problem everywhere, I know from reporting on it, but there are practical ways to address the problems which I don't think have been done in that city.

quote:
big cities are, as a rule, not my scene. but i didn't have to do research on New York City to feel a personal shock and loss from 9-11.


I don't think this is really fair of you to say. First of all you seem to imply I have felt no personal shock and sense of loss. You want to paint me that way but a can assure you it is not the case. It is simply very unclear to many of us outside that culture how the city got the way it is. If you disapprove of my healthy curiosity I have to assume it comes form some hidden fear about what conclusions I might draw.

quote:
when all the bodies are collected...when the toxic muck is gone...when the rebuilding finally begins, and it will...then i think will be the time to offer your ambivalence. right now, i find it callous.


This is the least fair thing you could say; to imply that I don't care about the human suffering going on right now. There is suffering and there is selfishness. I am aware of the suffering. I hurt for the suffering. I just don’t want to see the selfishness cause any more suffering in the future.

Tam thanks for the links to the pages on the area. I finally found the name of the book I read which takes place in NO but had forgotten. I gave it to my Mom to read many years ago. It was John Kennedy Toole's novel, A Confederacy of Dunces. I thought this was a great insight into the lives of the people of that city, I thought the MC was a bit weird though, and outcast among outcasts if ever there was one.
 
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joie de vivre

laissez le bon temp roulet.. cher Wink

now i wish i had take french in college.. cest la vie
 
Posts: 2723 | Location: la la land | Registered: 22 June 2003Report This Post
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Andrei Codrescu on New Orleans. this truly says it all.


"culture" in quotes, eh? whatever. i will never change your mind about New Orleans... apparently i can't even educate you even a little about it's worth. again...maybe you'll appreciate it more when the ecomnomic impact of it's loss reaches Pennsylvania. and it will...

i won't say that seeing a bunch of dead people on TV doesn't move you. you wrote a poem about and all. i'm just saying it's obviously a lot easier to feel for them than for people you actually "know" (you don't know me, though i suspect you think you do...), who actually do know New Orleans...

you'll never get it. it requires balanced research. it requires more depth of understanding than you choose to give it. or perhaps than you possess. that may not be what you consider "fair" either, but what do you expect from a selfish Southern dunce such as myself? it's at least as fair as your attempts at "understanding". i should have been done a long time ago with you, but i foolishly persisted in my effort to help you understand why New Orleans is important. it is boldly apparent that my efforts are useless and i for one am not going to give you further cause to paint me as selfish, biased, and generally piss me off. you're not worth it. if any good comes of this at least you have revealed your true colors, and i have been able to vent my true feelings for you. and hopefully, be done with you from here on.


WHAT WOULD XENA DO?

are you sitting on the soap?

sometimes, you just have to say 'what the f...'

 
Posts: 5103 | Location: Austin Texas, baby | Registered: 22 June 2003Report This Post
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