Stephen Vincent wrote:

>Re the recovery of Fats D
>Ironic to re-hear replaying constantly  in my head,
>"I found my thrill 
>On Blueberry hill"
>
>When I was 13 I had no clue what it meant
>  
>
HA!  We must be of an age because neither did I.  Antoine totally 
rocked.  According to his daughter he hasn't been out much in the last 
few years.  I imagine he has retired for performing.

>(Whether an actual place in the rural south or a form of male self-care,
>I still don't know.)
>  
>
Me neither, but I guess we've all been there since:-).

>But it is already something - as is the history of African-Americans -  to
>imagine the music/song that will emerge from this tragedy. Always a weird
>white American luxury to listen to after the fact.
>"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"  Indeed. (No, don't put an image of Bush's plane
>doing a New Orleans flyover into the song).  Let it be a real rescue. And
>definitely not that refrain, "Let it be...."
>But, heah,  do we have a government manufactured New Orleans holocaust going
>on? Out of sheer negligence - in spite of all the warnings about the levees,
>the need for protective marshlands, etc.
>A monumental open wound is going to be with us - USA - for a long time
>coming.
>  
>
This is why I made the Carthage comment.  No, I don't think for a second 
there was an aggressive move against the city, but I believe that people 
inside the administration were perfectly aware what could happen if 
those funds were withheld.  Yet Nature had the final hand here...even if 
the levee was finished it was supposed to withstand a Cat 3 hurricane, 
not the Cat 4 of Katrina when it made landfall?  Even if it "missed" the 
city by just a bit, it was quite a monster.  I do not believe N.O. will 
be back.  Not in my lifetime.  A city of some sort may rise elsewhere or 
there will be a New Orleans "diaspora" as is already taking shape...but 
after what's happened I can't imagine anyone wanting to build in that 
"bowl" ever again.

Someone who works in a retreat house (understand the context) sent me a 
video about N.O. with music; it is both appalling and deeply moving.  
The music is not gloppy/soppy but aims at the sense of indomitability 
and uplift, and its only message is to give charitably to no named 
cause.  Red Cross, churches, whatever.

My S.O. said she had to turn off the TV.  "If I see much more I'm going 
to have to go down there."  This woman is not an activist, but she is a 
human being.  It it was I, the bleeding heart liberal, who had to remind 
her that the Red Cross might take us (they have been soliciting 
volunteers) but would put us in untoileted hovels in brutal heat, that 
it would be physically dangerous, and that we'd probably have to get 
down there on our own and buy our own gas.  I doubt they're going to 
charter a flight to land in an airport that may not be there anymore.

Sometimes I hate my occasional practical moments.

Oh...songs...I don't think I'm going to be able to listen to Arlo 
Guthrie sing "City of New Orleans" again.

Ken

-- 
Kenneth Wolman
Proposal Development Department
Room SW334
Sarnoff Corporation
609-734-2538