New Orleans Darlings

I went down to New Orleans about three weeks following Katrina, and that changed me. I stayed in the French Quarter in a hotel with power but no running water and basically walked around taking pictures, talking to people, taking notes.

I also drove through the Gulf Coast to see Slidell, Gulfport, Biloxi. Folks, it’s like a nuclear bomb went off down there, but there’s no radiation. It’s the new America, though. A future view perhaps of citizens sold out or forgotten by the government, without basic utilities, scrounging through trash bags for food and clothing in the hot, humid weather.

Here’s something you haven’t heard, however. I met volunteers who went down to help people and are planning to stay. They say New Orleans gives them meaning in that they feel genuinely needed. It’s also the new frontier in the Horace Greeley sense of opportunity and adventure. We’ve been needing a new frontier, America.
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This is a new blog for a new year! I aim for 250 words a day – a resolution. For those not in the know, I started and maintained a blog for a few months last year. But nobody came except my dad. For a number of reasons I eventually abandoned the thing. I took off all of August just like George W. Bush, except I never came back from vacation.

Really, I missed the chance to sound off. It’s still the right of every American! (Be forewarned, the NSA is probably listening … um, data-mining).

Now, I am reborn as REDGLARE! I quite like my new nom de blog.