I Wish

I just talked with my friend, Deena, who is coming back to work in my building. She's leaving a horrible position she's had for about three years, and she took a lateral transfer to come back to work in a different office. Her old position did not start out horrible - three years ago when she took it, it was a two-step increase for her, but the people in that office are impossible. They are isolated from the rest of the organization by their location and they want to do everything outside of the established policies and procedures. Anyway, they and their stupidity and pettiness and bickering will soon be left behind. My wish is that they have to come to the main building and see what working for this organization should really be like. That would shock some of them numb. They didn't deserve someone as wonderful as Deena and they treated her like shit. She certainly did not deserve them.

I wish I had loads of money. I want to travel. I want to be able to give my friends and family what they need and ease their burdens. I want to help the local food and toy charities that are running so close to the bone this year. And, I am still devastated by the catastrophe in New Orleans. I wish I could go to NO with full pockets and help. Even if only to hire a shitload of trucks to go in and start hauling debris, cutting trees and cleaning yards and streets. I think that if the garbage and debris was gone and the streets cleaned it would go a long way toward helping people be encouraged to make the move back in and re-settle. If I had evacuated and wanted to go back but first had to deal with the enormous MESS I don't think I'd have the energy to do it - it would make me too tired and sad to see the chaos. My friend Poppy and her husband have moved back in - they are unable to stay in their house and are fighting with the insurance company, barely see the Red Cross or FEMA, and are doing what they can to make it home again. She has posted pictures in her blog of trips she's taken around town and it is so disheartening to see areas where people have barely even entered yet. It is a horrendous mess that everyone has to deal with. Horrendous.

And, I don't know who started this whole fracas about Mardi Gras "yay or nay" but it is the stupidest thing I've every heard. OF COURSE, Mardi Gras must go on. Are these non-New Orleaneans who are promoting and spreading this stupid idea? Do they really think Mardi Gras is just about drinking and throwing up? Have they ever BEEN TO New Orleans? If I had lots of money (again, I think I need to win the lottery!) I would recruit Poppy and friends to plan and throw the biggest, goddamned party and parade NO has ever seen! Invite the whole city, barbecue and eat for days, dance till you fall down, give all the scattered musicians free tickets home, and drink till you puke if you want! Mardi Gras has never been just about drinking and if you think it is then you know nothing. It embodies the spirit of New Orleans, its history, its resiliance, and its pride, and in my opinion, this Mardi Gras festival, with all its potential problems and quirks, MUST GO ON - it's the most important thing they can do to start healing both the people and the City. The traditions must be maintained and re-built in order to salvage any city or culture that's been decimated. Always. Read your history books.

Or, if Mardi Gras really IS just about drinking and puking, then somebody better tell me and I'll shut up.

Sorry for the lecture - I sure took a crazy turnabout to get from my happy little news about Deena coming back to my building to giving my highly un-educated opinion about New Orleans, since I don't live there and never have, but I feel strongly that the people who live or lived there deserve respect, not derision; they need our help not our sympathy, and they need us to understand that they are not stupid because they live there and "we" think they should now abandon it. Their crime is not in living in a hurricane-prone region, their crime is not in living below sea level. If there was a crime committed it was by the Federal Government who told them they had made it safe for them to live there and raise their families. The Federal Government told them the levees were made safe by the US Army Corps of Engineers; they TOLD them they would not fail except under the most horrendous wind conditions, WHICH WERE NOT EVEN CLOSELY MET BY KATRINA. They were told the pilings were stuck deep into the earth, which THEY WERE NOT. Some of the levees were held up by pilings that were not even deep enough to get past the mud and goo, let alone drilled into the solid earth and bedrock which USACOE told them had been done. NO WONDER THEY FAILED. And some of them weren't even made solid - just a bunch of crap and garbage piled up over and over again and covered with grass so nobody would see. Holy crap, it's a wonder they hadn't failed before Katrina - it was a disaster just waiting to happen. And the people who lived there, who depended on the levees FOR THEIR LIVES, were LIED TO by the Feds over and over again because they did not want to spend the money to really fix the problem, even though the solutions were presented to them over and over again. The decimation of New Orleans was not Katrina's fault - it was the Federal Government's fault and they know it whether they'll admit it or not. Katrina was just a catalyst that unleased hell on earth for everyone who lived within New Orlean's failing walls.

And, once again, I've gone on a rant. Sorry. And, if anyone from New Orleans ever reads this, which I doubt (I presume I'm basically talking to myself here) I apologize profusely if my outsider views are presumptuous or wrong in any way. Just ignore me. And, if anyone from the Federal Government is perusing these blogs for "terrorist" (keyword: terrorist) information or other un-American activities, feel free to admit your guilt in the destruction of New Orleans and get off your collective butts and FIX IT!!!!!!