LaRive,
I didn't know that you were from New Orleans! First of all, I am so sorry to hear about your friends and your parents. How sad!
But I think that is one reason why I was so impressed with New Orleans. The courage I found there. True courage isn't necessarily fighting the "bad guy." To me, true courage is just keeping on keeping on even during times of great adversity. There wasn't a single person I met there who had not been deeply affected by Katrina, and who would've given anything to not have had Katrina happen, and yet they still just kept on living their lives...doing what they had to do.
That's courage! And New Orleans is filled with optimists! Everywhere in the city one sees banners proclaiming the rebirth of New Orleans. And such PRIDE! I don't think I've ever been in a city that has such deep pride. It's very impressive.
Ok....I just have to tell you one of my stories, because I know that you'll appreciate it. I met a guy there from Philadelphia who had been in New Orleans last January when the Saints were in the Play-offs against the Eagles. Now this guy is a diehard Eagles fan, so he went into the little bars in the French Quarter wearing his Eagles sweatshirt. He laughed and said that everywhere he went, people would come up to him, start talking and told him...."We're going to beat your butt, but hey, man....thanks for coming here! We really appreciate it!" He told me that they were so grateful and just so darn nice that he ended up by the end of the evening giving some of them his Eagles sweatshirt!
I met another guy (a native) who told me, "When you leave New Orleans, you're going to miss it!" And he's right! I would LOVE to be sitting at Cafe du Monde right now eating a beignet and drinking a cafe au lait. Oh geez, don't get me started. I was only there for the weekend, and yet I've got story after story after story. And I wasn't just in the tourist spots. I saw the devastation still there...and the rebuilding taking place....there was more devastation still there then I had realized. Shopping centers....abandoned....rows and rows of apartment buildings....abandoned. I saw the FEMA trailer parks and the new Musicians row. But hey, NO MATTER WHAT...New Orleans is coming back! And I think that everybody should go there and experience it!
And I think that the police got a bad rap in the media. My Dad used to say "Until you walk a mile in a person's moccasins, you can't judge." I think of the police I saw there who were doing a great job....and of the one I spoke with who told me that he would never be the same person as he was before Katrina. He told me that he saw things that no person should ever have to see. And his eyes filled with tears when he spoke of the dead bodies on that median strip in front of the convention center and how there was nothing that he could do. And in the neighborhoods of East New Orleans, and many others, each house door STILL bears the markings from the rescuers that told the date the house was inspected, who the rescuers were, and how many, if any, dead bodies were found inside.
Now you see? I did get started. Shut up, juanly! I'll have to answer the next part of your note in another post.
