a call to those LEFT BEHIND

[nashville_brook]

"Nawlins" was a city of refugees before the storm. "NeoLeans" will be the corporate reproduction. I don't even want to think about it. A postmodern "re-thinking" of the city. Fuck that shit. You guys have to get the hell out and don't look back.

You came from France and Canada and the Bahamas in the first place. You're nature is like moss -- moveable roots. It's in your nature to blow on down the road. I believe it's time to scatter again. That's okay because we could really use some cross-pollenation. We've been dying of mediocrity for too long. We've lost our flavor. That's why we liked to come down there and party. We need you. Not your buildings. You.

You've been LEFT BEHIND.



We've all been LEFT BEHIND.



WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT.

The "response" to your destruction has been, "call your local Red Cross." I shit you not. The pResident has repeated it on the television. You probably haven't seen it because you haven't had electricity. But that's his answer. Call the Red Cross. Yes, the same Red Cross that couldn't account for all the 9-11 money. Bush is basically saying, it's a local problem. Chertoff isn't acknowledging what is happening.

This is for everyone, actually -- if you live in a place where you might share an attic with a Nutria, or have an Alligator sun on your dock, you are living on the wrong end of history's to-do list. There's no time, and I don't have the energy to explain the money and politics behind the destruction of the federal government and the wetlands and what that means to you, and how it will never be right until we have leadership that puts people before money which we all feel IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN FOR A VERY LONG TIME, so this is only the beginning. You have to realize you've been LEFT BEHIND. It's happened. Now, what are you going to do about it?



Leave. Come to Nashville. We'll teach you how to BBQ. I'm sure we can scrounge up stuff for gumbo. Bring your friends with you, you're going to need them. We did that leaving the mountains and haven't looked back -- myself, husband and some 20 friends. You'll like it here. There's simpatico. Hear what I'm saying -- you can't trust a Texan. That Astrodome will do just fine for a pit stop, but get the hell of Bush country. Get into blue zones. You are just going to be happier and have it easier in blue metros. Follow the food. Memphis. Nashville. The mountains between Tennessee and North Carolina. We have a democrat governor. He's fighting to keep our National Guard. Our healthcare sucks, but with enough help we can fix that.

We are all going to eventually LEFT BEHIND in Bushworld.



We've got a lot of damage to repair.

I remember a few weeks ago discussing how people behave in an emergency. The conservative I was talking to was saying all hell would break lose. I said, "I've been thru hurricanes, my friends have been thru hurricanes -- and that's not the case." People check on each other. They share food and information and wait it out. But that's was whitey white, richy-rich Florida. Louisiana is poorest state in the nation. New Orleans was one of our poorest cities. New Orleans isn't fucked because of the people -- it's fucked because people are DESPERATE. Bushworld needs us to think the people LEFT BEHIND are bad people. They are looters. We are being told to fear you. But we are getting the real story. We are having to work at it, but we know who the real looters are.



Who is the real threat to society?



One of the best things about the coast in general, and Melbourne in particular, is now your BIG FUCKING CLUE to why you need to get the hell out of there. IF you have great blue herons in everyone's backyard GET OUT. Those wetlands belong to the sea and she's taking them back. She's sick of your development, your bulldozers and your ridiculous chain malls. She has no use for Panera Bread and Macaroni Grill. She fucking HATES RON JONS. She's had enough of us.



If we can shoot a bomb down a chimney in Iraq, then why can't we shoot some damn bottled water into the Convention Center? I guess the answer to that is that we are too busy making the rest of the world, uh, safe.



People are walking. Just walking out of New Orleans. They were LEFT BEHIND.



It's all Bushworld now. We're all going to have some extra time on our hands as we lose our jobs as the economic waves crash on our heads. Lets spend it acquainting ourselves with how we got here. Take the time REALLY listen to what's being said. Bush has no intention of cleaning this up. It's in "your" hands now. The government isn't intervening. Telethons? A Bush/Clinton cross-country fundraiser? We are all screwed. Our friends to the south were just the canaries in the coal mine. Our well-being deserves more than the Commerce Clause. We deserve a government that protects us.

LEFT BEHIND isn't a way to run this country.



This is not America.

[demo dutch]

1. I discovered Memphis and Tennessee this summer and loved it

and surely Memphis would receive the refugees with open arms. But it's important rebuild NOLA, it will never be the same but it needs to be rebuild no matter how long it takes. It's important for the spirit of the country, because NOLA and its uniqueness represents so much what this country stands for booth good and bad.

[nashville_brook]

4. i know there's already a lot of church to church and family to family

outreach. i haven't talked to anyone in the music community, but i'm sure there some outreach there.

the thing for me is that my experience of NO is the knowledge of it's fragility. sure, there'll be something there to save and rebuild. it'll be great. cleaner. tidier. but it will never be the place it was. the true quality of a european walking city...

the last time we were there was our "honeymoon." two years ago during christmas was our 10th anniversary and since we couldn't afford a honeymoon when we were married we decided to treat ourselves with a trip for our 10th anniversary. i distinctly remember having the dizzy feeling of cognitive dissonance realizing we drove 6 hours to be in a walking-friendly city. walking around the outskirts of the quarter; smelling the vomit; seeing the fat drunk tourists slpay themselves all over people's doorsteps and oogling what is essentially the assend of the architecture. the pretty shutters and the courtyard design was a remnant of premodernism when excrement was tossed out the backdoor on the very steps we position ourselves on for our shitty snapshots.

on that trip i spent the lions share of my time determined to find the folks i remembered HAD lived in the quarter and many had moved to magazine street with their independent gallaries and studios. we bought a beautiful raku urn at a little studio where we made friends with the owner who had to move from the quarter and was having to move again off of magazine b/c the rent kept going up. the real estate bubble and termites were well on their way to killing nola before katrina.

and the other thing we used to 'make the 6-hour drive for' was the real food and real people. people who took us in their homes. their makeshift bnb's off of esplande. one time when my husband was recording in a studio down there we were staying at a bnb. i broke my ankle the first nite we were there. the owners of the bnb were nurses and gave me crutches to use. they lived right on a levee. ground zero.

i DO hope people leave. i don't think it's safe anymore without regulation of the wetlands. i do know, a NeoLeans with chain restaurants and upscale shopping is not the Nawlins i had the gift of getting to know.

[ret5hd]

2. uhhhh...if you do decide to leave...

we could use a little flavor here in fort worth also.

[nashville_brook]

5. that's still texas! i'm scared of texas.

:)

but you get the spirit of my ranting.

i don't throw this out there to encourage there never to be any old culture at ground zero. there will those who return. the hardcore. the thickheaded?

there's was a humanity in nola that was unlike any in the US. much more of a mediterranean than anything. florida thinks their medditerranean. they aren't. they are castillian. still cool, but not the same thing.

i can't believe bush is only getting off his ass tomorrow to go look at this thing.

this better f'ing be his WATERloo.

[nashville_brook]

3. sorry to post and run, but i had to hoard gas before it's too late

seriously, tho... it's going on labor day weekend. the truck was on empty and i realized we had no auxilary gas for mowing lawn or having an emergency. so i took the truck and grabbed a 5-gallon can and headed out in east nash for petro. i figured i'd just hop over to the citgo across the street but they ran out yesterday. so i went to the mapco further up the road, but still without getting in traffic, and the sign said 3.19 for regular. i noticed last nite exxon up gallatin was 2.79/gal, so the BP (Better Politically) might have it for less assuming the large corps might have lower prices. the BP sign said nothing and the pump said 3.29/gal. so, i thought the exxon is right next to the house, so i'll just swing by there.

so, it was 2.92 a gallon with a $75 limit per purchase and a LINE.

i got my evil exxon gas and swung by the liquor store to get a supply of cheap red wine for the weekend. i totally felt like i was hoarding. it's in the air.

if there were ever a time to be a homeboy it's now. i plan to cook up about 3 gallons of dog food. hubby is making beer this weekend. no plans to visit family. can't afford it and it's really scary -- the thought of getting stuck in the mountains past the weekend if gas runs out. think i'll do some long overdue maintenence on my bike. it FEELS like i'm gonna need it.

with regard to my OP -- it really does scare me to think of everyone going in the same direction and i'm not a pessimist by nature, but we have to get over the "it can't happen here" attitude. it can happen anywhere. we MUST be thoughtful about how we are to live from this day forward.

there's a palpable difference from this and 9-11. i believe this is far more groteseque if you can even put a scale on that sort of thing -- but more frightening in the response. i just finished reading The Mass Psychology of Fascism and i'm convinced social chaos has a quantum function. but so does order.