why?

ive written about this before but damn, why must we be so hell bent on tearing things down in this city post-katrina? can you imagine if we had this attitude all along? we would look like atlanta or houston and i would be in amsterdam or paris where they value the beauty of old architecture. when they tore st. thomas housing projects down, i was sad. those buildings were beautiful. in addition, they also up rooted many of the elegant oak trees on the site and this kind of reckless abandon is what pisses me off. why is it so impossible to rehabilitate these buildings? look at lafitte, they are beautiful and surrounded by stately oaks. if we let them have their way, there won't be anything left on the damn site. no trees, nothing and for what? so they can erect ticky tacky houses that all look the same and by same i mean cheap. there have been independent architects that have said the damage to these buildings is greatly exaggerated. look, i'm no proponent of housing projects. i think it is a failed attempt to care for the poor and failed because it segregates them from the rest of society. it stigmatizes them but the middle of a post-disaster housing crisis is not the time to try and fix all of our societal ills. people need housing now! and i do not believe that the answer is demolition over rehabilitation. you can make them into nice apartments and turn the area into mixed income housing. you want more police presence? bring back the beat cop. theres an idea. kids in these inner city slums have no role models but the drug dealers. the only time the cops show up is to clean up. oh, they might drive by in the isolation of their patrol cars but there is no significant connection being made. so let's bring the beat cops back and not just into the projects but everywhere. new isn't always good. i challenge everyone to ride by these areas scheduled to be demolished and see the potential of the existing structures. and remember that many people call them home and that many of them wait, homeless. keep in mind that hano says the new buildings will not be ready until 2010. if you live in a tent at city hall, that is a mighty long time to wait. if anybody reads this, go out and make some noise. call into the city council. march. protests. this is our city. take it back. we have allowed things to happen to us for far too long. enough!

quote of the year

"it is my belief that you don't choose new orleans-new orleans chooses you. those who have fallen for her; live with her; are sprung, lost and turned out in love with her know exactly what i mean. ain't no amount of wind, water, gunfire, potholes, 'ignant' politicians, or doomsday predictions can pry your death grip from her. come hell and high water you stay-or return...i think she's a cult."
-Deborah Cotton.
that is a great quote! i want to meet this woman, hell i think i'm in love.

going home

i made the annual pilgrimage to my parent's house for thanksgiving and you would think by now that i would no longer be shocked by my family's racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-arab and anti-muslim sentiments but you would be wrong. i think what makes the turkey stick in my throat so that i need a quart of wine to wash it down, is the hypocrisy with which they spout these things. we say grace before the meal and everyone there touts their belief in god, some more than others, but the underlying theme is that their belief somehow sets them apart. and out of the same mouths that gave thanks to the lord, the most vile rhetoric is spewed. if you believe in a god as the creator of all things then surely it must dawn upon you that god made arabs and black people. if you belief in heaven and that you are bound for glory, does it not stand to reason that one day as you quietly strum the harp, that black people will move onto your paved in gold road and then what what must you think...damn! there goes the neighborhood? i have heard my whole life that blacks are the cursed children of ham and thus deserve their fate of subjugation. if it is god's will that they be enslaved then so be it. how easy it becomes to justify the abuse. people have also historically used the gospels as an excuse to hate the jews, since they were clamoring for the crucifixion of christ, and so it went from pogroms to the final solution with 6 million dead. and does the bible give a reason to despise the arabs? ah but of course, they are the sons of ishmael, the out cast. god said their would be enmity between ishmael's seed and all the nations of the earth. and wouldn't it stand to reason that the sons of an accursed out cast would attack america, the long supposed zion on the hill? and who cares if they are held in prisons without charges for years on end, suffering from torture that we as a nation have the audacity to debate whether or not it even qualifies as torture. and the bible says thou shalt not lie with a man as with a woman and so it must be god's will that we hate homosexuals. if it is god's will then there are those who truely believe they are called by god to hold signs that read god hates faggots at the funerals of fallen soldiers. these are the same people that go to sleep at night, smiling over the stark scene of matthew shepard hanging on a barbed wire fence, left to die in the cold. and does the bible say that women are the weaker vessals and that wives are subject to the authority of their husbands? it does and so what if he hits her, god has given him that right. and here in new orleans, they say we were punished by god for our sins. i say, let him who is without sin, cast the first stone. what about do not judge lest ye be judged? what about love? for god's sake, what about love?

new orleans

i walked the quarter the other night, just as the fog was coming in on little cat feet, as sandburg might say and i was struck by the wonder of it all. the quarter is never more beautiful than in the season of winter, with its cracked and creaking buildings whispering of brittle mornings in the time of stirabout and tea. i stood at the royal street entrance to pirates alley and in the mist, i could have been debating a brisk walk down any uneven lane in england or france. behind me, a man took up the violin and played something sad and haunting and terribly appropriate for the city these days. i was prone to sadness but before i could fully give into it, i heard the far off cry of the pie lady, singing out her wares and thought of how lucky i am to live in new orleans. storm or no storm or even because of the storm. this city is a heart that never tires. i guess this entry is foolishly sentimental. in the fog, it is easier to overlook our many flaws but maybe that is the point, we all need a holiday from the litany of problems to be calm and rediscover what it is about this place that keeps us here. is it a walk through the shrouded quarter or a second line romp through a sunlit neighborhood? is it the music of sweet little dive bars tucked away in unexpected places or the insistence of celebrating life and mardi gras the first year after the apocalypse? for me it is the simple and the complex. it is the nuances and smells. the architecture and the people. the something you can't quite put your finger on and so a meat pie from the pie lady during a quiet quarter stroll is one way to name it. Besides, she has the best damn pies and a right fine singing voice and i could have wept to hear her when she first came back after katrina. as i recall, i did weep.

growth hormones and milk

i love milk. i love everything about it from its creaminess to its color and so i wish that we would stop fucking around with nature's perfect elixir. i don't want to drink a cup of growth hormones or antibiotics. i just want milk in its pure form. hell, i don't even want it pasteurized so i find it disturbing that pennsylvania is now preventing dairies from labeling their milk as hormone-free. WHAT?? i want to know what i'm drinking. i deserve to know what i'm drinking. i don't want hormones. i don't want chemicals. i don't want the government hiding hormones and other chemicals. i want to know. it pisses me off that the government, whether it be local or national is constantly poking its nose into my business; telling me what i can or cannot ingest, who i can or cannot sleep with, what i can or cannot wear(baggy pants that show my underwear, and where i can or cannot travel(i hear cuba is nice this time of year). i'm fed up. this law in penn. sets a dangerous precedent which threatens to catch on in this country. you better start making some noise if you want any say as to what is in your food.

goergie porgie pudding and pie...

got elected president and made the country cry. shrub is at it again, this time vetoing an education/health bill while simultaneously signing a defense bill. so much for no child left behind. w signed a "$471 billion defense department spending bill that pays for regular pentagon operations other than the current wars in iraq and afghanistan. this is coming on the hills of bush vetoing the water spending bill basically amounted to his giving new orleans the middle finger. so much for his jackson square speech. i don't even have anything else to say. the man leaves spoke speechless. i mean shit!

religious right

zealotry...that ought to be a dirty word. it never ceases to amaze me what people will do in the name of god and if there is a god, he must grow so bored with us. in the name of god, people strap a bomb to their chest and a blow up an israeli bus. in the name of god, so called christians protests the funerals of american soldiers by holding up signs that read, "god hates fags". they do this because they believe that god is punishing this country for allowing homosexuality to continue. they do this in the name of god and here is where i take issue. let us assume there is a god. we shall take it on fact. are we really to beleive that god searched the world over and the best that he could find was some dumb son of a bitch spitting out teeth and tobacco juice in the back forty to be his mouth piece? really? i am galled by the level of arrogance that you have to posses in order to believe that you and no one else has the direct line to god! out of the entire world, he would choose the half washed illiterate bubbas of the world to go forth and barrel chest his message to the world. and what is that message? "god hates fags" in this time of global warming, drought, wild fires, and wars all god has to say is that he hates fags? funny, i thought god was love. you know what? spoke the cat says shut the fuck up! you just are not that important.