Still Dead: The Ghosts of New Orleans

Bourbon Street has its place in New Orleans's music history, and not all of it is bad. Louis Armstrong began his musical career as a child blowing his horn on the streets of the French Quarter. An authoritative biographer could probably say whether Armstrong actually played anywhere other than Storyville or Lake Ponchatrain, but he probably did play Bourbon Street at some point.

You can lament the state of music in New Orleans today because of the effect of the levee break. That's all a part of the city's life. In the early 1800's, they were so desperate for workers in the city that the newspapers never mentioned devastating plagues of malaria and other highly contagious diseases. They did not wish to discourage anyone from coming.

Maybe Katrina will mark the end of the Jazz Era in New Orleans. A solid century is a good run. Maybe it will mark its second renaissance. But could Jazz ever survive the effect of the federal government's help? Maybe it is the only thing that could kill it.

KATHLEEN:

What are you scared of? "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" was spoken by president Roosevelt during the darkest days of our country's history. He led us through and we came through. But there is no forever here.

You must realize that this life is what you and you alone make it. You're a bit too young to be making life deciding decisions but you're far from too young to ask questions. No matter what the adults tell you it's up to you to ask the right questions and never take magic for the answer. If the answers they give you do not conform to what you see about you then you must demand a reasonable explanation, something that does conform.

The child must be smarter than the parent else there is no progress. The child must not be silenced when the hard questions are asked and the adults can only find magic to explain.

Yesterday is dead and gone while tomorrow is out of site so find yourself a really good set of binoculars. You are the future while most all others here are the past. The past can guide you to the future but it is not the future. The future is you. Good luck, study hard and don't take any wooden nickels. Remember, the only counselor that you will ever mind is yourself so counsel yourself well.

While an interesting look into the status of New Orleans is worth reading for many people, I am lost as to how this relates to the question asked. I see the metaphorical relationship but am disappointed that the question is not answered directly.

IT S REALLY MAKE ME SCARED MAYBE IT S NORMAL BBECAUSE I M 13 AND A LITTLE BIT STUPID BUT I M VERY AND REALLY SCARED!!

Black people are the soul of New Orleans, just as they were the soul of America during the civil rights movement. I pray that a place will be made for all of them who want to come back home to America's most unique and wonderful city.

Black people are the soul of New Orleans, just as they were the soul of America during the civil rights movement. I pray that a place will be made for all of them who want to come back home to America's most unique and wonderful city.

As a native Orleanian, I can tell you the music is diminished, but not dead by a long shot.

Anybody who uses Bourbon Street as a point of reference for Nola sounds is severely out of touch -- Bourbon street hasn't "moaned" (except to the soundtrack of a co-ed's sick) in at least a half century -- the music there has been hopelessly margaritaville long before Katrina.

Remember: William S. Burroughs said "New Orleans is a dead museum" quite some time ago. To outsiders, New Orleans has always been and will always be a specter of their imagined and projected idea of our city.

Talk about an airball. That was one of the most uninformed, pre-conceived, vague writings on New Orleans I've ever read.

No need to break down the whole piece. As a native New Orleanian, one can tell that the author of this piece doesn't know anything about the city, past or present. Readers should ignore this piece. You'd be better off reading tourism press releases (stereotype) and watching the five o clock news (doom and gloom).

I like New Orleans. Uptown, Garden District, CBD, French Quarter, Mid-City, Fauberg Marigny. Some of these places were flooded -- particularly Mid-City -- but most were not.

There are beautiful bud modest churches in Mid-City near the cemeteries where all the nice ornamentation begins above sea level -- five or six feet above ground. So the parishoners have always known where the water line will be after the levee breaks.

Once in the mid-1920s, a great Mississippi River flood threatened to break the levees. The only way to save the city was to blow the levees below town and relieve the river levees of build-up, some people thought. In fact, there was no significant danger that the levees would break. However to satisfy outside investors, they blew the levees anyway.

Vie,
I am sorry, I did misunderstand.

Blessings,
terra

this is a poem that a member of my group wrote for Katrina and Rita's victims.

Storm Surge

Storm tossed and battered
Confusion surrounds us
A black tidal wave of fear
Swamping our lives
Threatening all we have
Attempting to drown our sanity

Steadfast strong and solid
Surrender is not an option
We stand together and fight
Side by side as always
Unyielding in our resolve
We will win

Holding out till the last second
Searching for weakness
Probing for openings
Hoping to break our foundation
Pummeling from a distance
Showing no signs of yielding

We face the world
Weather-worn and tired
Bloodied but unbeaten
Stronger in our unity
Relentless in our perseverance
Victorious we will be

Author Silvlaro
© Copyright 2005

RS,
Maybe if more Churches worked for peace we would not have more folks dead then in 9/11...over 28000 injured and the million plus Iraqis that are dead..and the 2 million who are displaced. But what the hey...S**t happens. So you think war is right and good? You think Iraq is a Just war, when it was started on a foundation of lies and greed? Just what good can come from evil? Depleted uranium, cluster bombs, murder,a desimation of a people and an ancient culture, dead babies and because of the DU there will be malformed and mutilated babies, cancers and other fun stuff...But some folks can pull out their rubber finger and wave it around while shouting..."We are #1!"

But heck...why should a church seek peace? But then I am only a heathen, I didn't realize that the Gosple of Jesus Christ was pro war...

I find it amusing that you could tell another Christian how her church should be run. This is something no Wiccan leader would tell another leader. As a teacher and leader of a tradition/denomination I would never think about telling another how they should follow their god/s. That is personal to them and their spirits. Who are you to tell another that they are wrong? But then we do not think we have the ultimate truth.We have A truth...as you have A truth.

We Pagans can just sit back and watch as you Christians judge yourselves into oblivion.

I think the good rev. has every right to answer that question as she sees fit. The question brought to mind something she felt was more important then what happens after death...she is more worried about what is happening in life to people who are suffering.

It seems to me that Rev. Susan's church must care more about the living then the dead...after all isn't that what we are supposed to do?

terra

PP,
Welcome back...where you been? Or have I just missed you. I seems to be slow in catching up since I got back from Gathering.

It's so good to read you, Lepi and Wiccan. Funny how folks can be missed.

Yep, Richmond does stay on line...don't he?

; )
terra

Oh, and Richmond:

Heck of a job.

Hi, Terra! Lepi. I's back! :)

My turn to post a song.

Funny it's not 'King of New Orleans,' but rather this one. :)

"For I, will live in your life
And all your sorrow will be gone.
And I, will sing out my songs,
Will right my wrongs the best I can
And I will be free
Long before the silence fills the air.
For we have met in this life
To dance in the light, in
the time we have.
And I, will call out your name
And through my pain
You will understand
The lovers' song, though love will on
Long, long after life is gone
So, just let me sing
So I may live again.

I will return, oh I will return
You can hear the echoes say.
From out of the night and into the light
I will return one day.
And I will die in your arms
And all my sorrow, will be gone.
And all the things in my life,
I held so dear, must leave me now.
But I will live on
Long, after the silence,
Ends the song."

-Steve MacDonald: I Will Return

Terra said: "RS, what is better then worrying about some church, is to worry about a people and a culture. New Orleans is something so special...it might have been the most unique place in the world...certainly in this country. I am sad that you would think that Rev.Thistlethwaite who specializes in reasons of violence and violation is failing people"

This week's question is not about New Orleans, it is about life after death.

SBT is the president one of seven seminaries that the United Church of Christ depends on for education and training of its ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If she is an expert on matters of violence and violating people, then she ought to educate the UCC denominational leaders who think the sole solution to every military conflict situation is complete surrender.

If any Christian denomination needs to hope for resurrection, it is the UCC.

Just curious. You weren't in NO at government expense were you? Did your ministry get any of the 4+ billion of Katrina relief money that went to ministries?

It's amazing how charitable religion is when disaster strikes. I wonder how many of those tax dollars "trickle down" to those who really need them and how many are simply "payback" for getting Bush elected/reelected.

Your God is really Devil. http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul is still without refute.

Terra:
Busy as usual - you know me - I'm not good at sitting still. In rehearsal for "The Childrn's Hour" - I'm SO thrilled to have gotten a role in a Lillian Hellman play! Add to that bell choir, and extra kids either living or practically living at my house. Plus it's public radio pledge drive time, so I'll be hanging out at the station taking pledges on my days off this weekend, and working as an election commissioner next weekend. Saw Robert Cray at House of Blues night before last - I would have that man's baby in a heartbeat. Ushering for Capitol Steps tomorrow night.
Saturday evening we're having some friends over for cards. They're teaching us bridge and we're teaching them bourree. Do you and your hubby play cards? If so, come join the party. You'll love Mel and Victor - she's from Cornwall and he's from Wales, and she's a killer card player. We keep the bouree at penny ante when we play with her. She's going to be Rob's dialect coach when he directs Sleuth in February.

As a resident of the city, my family endured flooding and evacuation, and fear that the city wouldn't be fit for re-habitation, although we certainly experienced nothing on the order of that of the families, many of them dear friends, who lost loved ones as a result of government failures (levees). My family of 5 and I moved back to a gutted home and rebuilt -- one of the hardest decisions and experiences we'll ever have, but my kids will be stronger for it, I'm convinced. Many, many neighbors have done -- and are doing -- the same. We have given up relying on any level of government for support -- they all have failed to lesser or greater degrees.

Over these past 2 years, I have seen in New Orleans moments of grace, courage, and triumph of Christian spirit. I have observed many of these moments while volunteering with New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity (NOAHH), which Susan highlights as evidence, apparently, of a failed vision for recovery in the city. There I think she has it wrong.

The Musicians Village, which I visit at least twice a week, has in fact shown remarkable progress and success in bringing at least 50 musician families back to the city, including many, many indigenous jazz musicians. Not "a dozen", but nearly four dozen, homes are finished and occupied. All of the others are underway, and all of these are in the (upper) 9th Ward! Visit www.nolamusiciansvillage.org to see the progress of this exciting project. Musicians are getting into the program, by the way, because Habitat has worked hard to meet their proof-of-income and other obstacles. But it isn't a giveaway program, and so it's not "easy" -- which the homeowners say makes it all the sweeter.

One more thing -- the "music of New Orleans" isn't (and hasn't been for decades) among the t-shirt shops and sin saloons of Bourbon Street. That's where you'll find cover bands and karaoke -- not the stuff of Buddy Bolden or Satchmo, for sure. But several vibrant jazz clubs are thriving below the Quarter in the Faubourg Marigny. That's where you'll find any number of Musicians Village homeowners playing on a given night.

We do appreciate your volunteering in the city, Susan. We need more of our brothers and sisters to come and join us in preserving an American treasure. Next time you are here, please let us know and we'll take you on a tour to meet the musicians who are remaking this City as it was, and will be.

Through the generosity of the Rockefeller Foundation, a group of educators at Teachers College, Columbia University has created a curriculum to accompany "When the Levees Broke," Spike Lee's masterpiece, which addresses some of the issues. The curriculum is available, while supplies last, at www.teachingthelevees.org.
I encourage readers to check it out; talking about faith and resilience in the face of disaster is one of the topics taken up there.

Terra, maybe it's my fault for using casual phrasing but I think you missed my point. When I talk about "giving others something to celebrate" I'm talking about taking action to improve a situation rather than going on and on about our own spiritual discernment. Platitudes don't solve problems and that is not what I was recommending.

Hi Lepi!

How have you been?
Call me some time.

Blessed be,
terra

I too miss New Orleans. Every time we go, whether to visit friends who live there, or to hear a concert or attend a festival, it's with a mixture of glee and grief. Glee over the parts of that beautiful city that have been revived, reclaimed, rebuilt, resurrected even, and grief for those that have not yet, and for those that never will.

Susan,
Thank you...
I live not far from New Orleans and faced Katrina and Rita.. We were lucky.

There are those who made sure that red tape killed what Katrina left alive...hope, ways to rebuild to return...musicians who was the heart and movement of the city are crawling back from the brink of limbo. There are glimpses of that past when you turn a corner and hear the old zydeco and jazz..and the wailing blues.The French Quarter was not hurt all that much...the bars, the Witch shoppes, the Quarter is doing great...but the homes, the neighborhoods are MIA.

RS, what is better then worrying about some church, is to worry about a people and a culture. New Orleans is something so special...it might have been the most unique place in the world...certainly in this country. I am sad that you would think that Rev.Thistlethwaite who specializes in reasons of violence and violation is failing people...to talk about New Orleans is doing the work of humanity..

Vie, It's hard to celebrate when there is a higher rate of suicide; in the 11 months after NO flooded suicide rates tripled...they are even higher now. Divorce rates have gone through the blue covered roofs.There is more concern for mental health for the kids...So tell me Vie, what is the sunshine on these facts? What can those stuck in this post Heckofajob.... celebrate?

Rev.Thistlethwaite called attention to what is going on, because it was on her mind, she was there. (I wish I would have known, I would have tried to meet her.)I know that most Americans have Katrina Fatique...Americans are like third graders, attention to something as long as it is new and shiny. New Orleans is not new and the mold has taken away the shine. But they are in need of help..and all you fine Christians that like to talk need to get your selves down here and take a walk.
terra

Good answer, because it really does not address the question. This question is creepy, insubstantial and unanswerable. Whether or not we expect to be individually resurrected, we should be celebrating what is good in this world and doing our level best to give others something to celebrate.

I think a better example would be looking for life in the United Church of Christ.

Talk about failing people massively!!!!!!!!

:0

http://ucctruths.com