August 29th, 2011 - Six Years and a Lifetime

Thanks for the W last night Saints - starting to look like the Saints two years ago that won us a certain....superbowl:)

But today - I'm going to talk about the strength of New Orleans as a city. The people who brought the city back to life. The tourists that came for the 2006 Mardi Gras that they weren't even sure was going to happen. And most of all, the spirit of the city that would not get wiped out or drowned or forgotten.

The people -
The person I remember the most who was a native of the city of New Orleans is some random guy in the middle of St. Charles avenue whose name I don't even know. But it was 2006 Mardi Gras, and he was there with his family and we were watching a parade float go by. My friends and I were all engaging in some type of baffoonery as was par for the course, but we stopped and talked to this man who was just in awe of the parade. He teared up as he was talking about it and all he could say was just how happy he was that there were so many people there. That so many people came back. Granted this was the most sparse Mardi Gras we had all been a part of, but we liked it that way kind of because there was more room for us to get ceramic krewe beads. The news would have had you believe we were a ghost town, a fraction of what we once were. But that day proved to that man, and to us silly college kids that we were a part of something much more than a city-wide drinking event with beads and costumes, but we were part of bringing people home, and that some of us, some of us actually were home. And that was something I will never forget.

The tourists -
Thank you. Whoever you are and whenever you've chosen to come see the city, thank you. New Orleans' economy depends on people like you. The bachelor/ette parties that occur, the conferences, all that jazz. The city would have never been able to come back fully without tourists. What a ballsy set of travellers you are, coming to a city thats been flooded and being talked about like its some sort of third world country. I'm glad you had a set of brass ones that enabled you to come to the city and see how great it was doing and going back home and telling all your friends. It worked, thank you. And to the people who came to rebuild the city while taking it all in - a special thanks to you. Except for Sean Penn, I will never thank that guy for parading around my city post-katrina with a row boat and a shot gun. (Plus everyone knows you never go full-retard. See: Tropic Thunder) Thank you to David Simon who created Treme, a show that illustrates the city not in some fantasy everythings-awesome kind of way, but thank you for accurately portraying New Orleans, all of its qualities and all of its flaws.

To the spirit of the city -
For those of you who have been to New Orleans, I don't need to explain this. But if you haven't been yet...there's a feeling you get when you go to New Orleans that you can't quite explain. Maybe its because New Orleans was never really an English colony and appreciated all sorts of cultural influences starting way back into the 1700's that have rendered into something you can't find anywhere else in the world. Maybe its because the people there know they live below sea level in a hurricane zone and choose to live there anyway because thats what their ancestors did and thats what they're going to do too. Who knows, but that spirit is there. Post Katrina it was almost tangible. I remember driving downtown post-katrina with my dad and saying to him that it wasn't money that brought this city back, it was much bigger than that. It wasnt the federal funding (if youre a New Orleans native that comment made you laugh), it wasnt FEMA, it wasn't anything you could immediately define. It was a combination of those smiles that happen when you ask someone about their trip to New Orleans, or memories being told of someone from New Orleans to someone who'd never been, it was a food critic talking about the best meal they had in New Orleans and telling people why they had to go. It was something alright...

August 29th, 2005 was only six years ago but it was also a lifetime ago. My friends and I graduated from college, some left New Orleans, some stayed. We've gotten graduate degrees and care about 401(k)'s now. But what hasnt changed is that its still pretty obvious how much I love New Orleans. You can't drown it, blow it away, forget about it, or otherwise destroy it. You can try. But we'll just come back and win the superbowl again. God bless New Orleans. That city is always in my heart and has secured its future there.