Last night, the redoubtable Mr. B. and myself went to a dance concert that had been organized as a fundraiser for the New Orleans Musicians hurricane Relief Fund. The evening was a series of short (well, some short, some not so short) pieces of choreography done by a local choreographer and his friends. In general, I have to say I enjoyed the evening very much.
Funny to think that Katrina happened only at the end of August, and for so many of us, the disaster in New Orleans has been forgotten as our lives move on. I'm sure the people in New Orleans don't feel that way.
That fact was brought home a couple of days ago in an e-missive from a friend who's currently working at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and is sending his own sort of private diaries of the experience to a select group of friends. He had a couple of days off over the New Year, and decided to spend it with friends in the Big Easy:
I've been hearing a lot of calls lately from people who insist that we shouldn't rebuild in New Orleans. That the people who decide to live there knew this was a possibility and should assume all the responsibility.
That strikes me as rather impossibly stupid, actually.
Are you going to not rebuild Los Angeles after an earthquake? Are you not going to rebuild along the flood plains of the Mississippi after a flood? You gonna say, "Well, they knew this could happen to all the people in the heartland when their towns are flattened by tornados? How about when Southern Californa is burned and people lose their homes to brushfires?
Often, it seems to me, Americans like to trumpet how quickly we band together in a tragedy, but we're -- forgive the gross generalization or not -- a people that surely likes to point fingers at others and remind them of just how much smarter we are.
Color me naive, but we could use some more compassion. Me more than most.
I think my fifteen bucks was well spent.
Funny to think that Katrina happened only at the end of August, and for so many of us, the disaster in New Orleans has been forgotten as our lives move on. I'm sure the people in New Orleans don't feel that way.
That fact was brought home a couple of days ago in an e-missive from a friend who's currently working at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and is sending his own sort of private diaries of the experience to a select group of friends. He had a couple of days off over the New Year, and decided to spend it with friends in the Big Easy:
All of these parties shared the same uneasy sense of deep sorrow and tentative hopefulness. At one of them, in the French Quarter, I met a young man who was about fourteen years old. We were sitting together on the balcony overlooking the foggy street, and when he learned I was a first-time visitor, he said "Please tell the outside world that we still need lots of help here. Nobody seems to know."
I've been hearing a lot of calls lately from people who insist that we shouldn't rebuild in New Orleans. That the people who decide to live there knew this was a possibility and should assume all the responsibility.
That strikes me as rather impossibly stupid, actually.
Are you going to not rebuild Los Angeles after an earthquake? Are you not going to rebuild along the flood plains of the Mississippi after a flood? You gonna say, "Well, they knew this could happen to all the people in the heartland when their towns are flattened by tornados? How about when Southern Californa is burned and people lose their homes to brushfires?
Often, it seems to me, Americans like to trumpet how quickly we band together in a tragedy, but we're -- forgive the gross generalization or not -- a people that surely likes to point fingers at others and remind them of just how much smarter we are.
Color me naive, but we could use some more compassion. Me more than most.
I think my fifteen bucks was well spent.
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