Friends of New Atlantis

CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer filed the following report,

NEW ORLEANS - Ringing out one of the worst years in its colorful history, New Orleans launched into a rollicking New Year's Eve of memorials and merrymaking, from a traditional jazz funeral procession in honor of the hundreds of hurricane victims to an after-dark New Year's party.

Despite the destruction still evident four months after Hurricane Katrina, the city decided to welcome the New Year with fireworks, concerts, and in a twist on the Times Square ball drop, the lowering of a giant gumbo pot to markthe start of 2006.

"New Orleans is back open, so come on down and start visiting. That's the word to get out," said Brian Kern, an organizer of the festivities.

Well, here is a message for you Mr. Hern.

The city is in ruins and it's totally unconscionable to be celebrating in that fashion when so many people are homeless and miserable.

To you and all the business leaders who agreed that this New Year's celebration was the perfect chance to show the world that New Orleans still knows how to throw a party, use the money from private enterprises that funded a "second line" parade of bawdy majorettes, to show the world that New Orleans has finally learned the lesson.

Start by cleaning the city so those who chanced a return can get into the spirit of rebuilding.

Let's have a lot of "second line block clean up parties."

The world doesn't care whether you know how to throw a party or not. As a matter of fact great parties are thrown all over the world on clean streets and spotless sidewalks.

The world might pay attention if you clean up and roll up the sleeves ready to work instead of partying and begging.

Happy New Year and please don't throw me nothing mister.
Alberto Paz

'Twas the night before Christmas, and in the Faubourg
At the edge of the crescent, no creature stirred.

Under the shroud-like blue plastic from FEMA
That flapped in the wind in the wake of Katrina,
Nothing was hung by the chimneys with care
Since chimneys and roofs were no longer there.

The houses, abandoned for trailers or Texas,
Were circled with watermarks, branded with Xs,
And in them no sugarplums danced in kids' heads,
For no little children slept snug in their beds.

On this night before Christmas in Faubourg-St John
Where time had stopped dead, while the world carried on.

Then, lo, from the depths of what once was my garden
(Now a wild cesspool of strange hydrocarbons)
Up drift some voices from out of the dark
To compete with the flapping of my FEMA tarp:

- "They all axed for you, dawlin'. How did you do?"
- "Nine feet of water, and how about you?"

- "Do ya know what it means to miss New Orleans?"
- "Not enough ersters-or rice and red beans!"

I'm certain of whom this can't possibly be:
It's not the adjuster; it's not Entergy;
With looters gone elsewhere, this can't be a stick-up;
And who can remember the last garbage pick-up?

It's surely not someone from Capitol Hill
To tell me, at last, whether I can rebuild.
I lift back what's left of my old cypress shutters
And peek past the tangle of phone lines and gutters,

And what to my wondering eyes should appear?
Not Santa Claus and his team of reindeer
But, costumed in rubber attire and gas masks,
A long second-line waving hankies and flasks.

Rather than coconuts, beads and doubloons,
This krewe carries gear (and, just barely, a tune).
With wet-vacs and power tools, sheetrock and nails,
Brawny and Brillo piled high in their pails,

They're Superdome faithful, survivors of attics,
Mardi Gras maniacs, Jazz Fest fanatics,
Carnival trackers (from Allah to Zeus),
Believers in Saints (whether St. Jude or Deuce),

Joined by a couple of Dutch engineers,
Some out-of-town builders and church volunteers.
They pause at the dead live oak next to my door
In T-shirts declaring, “Make Levees Not War”.

Since ditching my mold-ridden fridge at the curb,
MREs have become the hors d'oeuvres that I serve
So I pass them around with Abita's new ale
When a wrench taps, "Clink! Clink!" on the side of a pail:

"To Blanco," they cry, "She got contra-flow down!
To Nagin, he sure told those Feds and Mike Brown!
To NOLA dot com, CNN, and the Times
Who cut to the quick of the Superdome crime!

To all those who took in our downtrodden folks,
Or ferried them out in their flat-bottom boats!
To Tennessee... Texas... Jackson... Atlanta...
Our Baton Rouge brothers ... and Lou-i-si-ana!"

I notice no Rudy steps up as their leader,
Yet something unseen guides this flock of believers,
A force that transcends rich or poor, black or white,
A light that can steer this brigade through the night.

In a twinkle they've finished the last of the ale
And they hoist their equipment, their masks and their pails:
- "On, Comet! On, Borax! On, Spic 'n Span!
- "Come (Yule) Tide and Cheer! Come, All, let us plan!

Up, Mildew! Off, Mold! Out, out, Toxic Waste!
Come, Shout! Away, Wisk! Come, let us make haste!
To the top of the water mark! Up, past the stair!
Let the City that Care Forgot know that we care!"

Then to Lakeview, Gentilly, Chalmette and the East,
Away they all marched to a Zydeco beat.
Ere they rose past the tarps, I heard a voice say
- "Merry Christmas-and Laissez les bon temps rouler!"

Larry Rabin
Contributed by Robin White

There's not a working clock in this entire city. This morning I went on my walk and the big clock by St. Patrick's Church on Camp said it was 2:30; as I walked on, the Whitney clock said it was 11:15, and by the time I hit the French Quarter a clock there told me quite firmly that it was 6:00 o'clock. I'm not really surprised at this - New Orleans has always had a problem with time. Time is not linear here; this is a city where people live in two hundred year old houses, have wireless Internet and use 600-year-old recipes while singing 60's songs to their newborns and dancing tango in the middle of the summertime. Time is more of a mental game in New Orleans...you can pick the year you liked the best and stay in that year for the rest of your life here and no one says a thing. You can talk about your great, great grandparents as if they were still alive and talk about your neighbors as if they were dead, and we all understand.

Time marches to it's own drunk drummer here. This morning as I walked into the Quarter on Chartres, a woman ran out of a cafe to greet me, "Hey dahlin" she yelled as she hugged me, "Where ya been?" I looked at her and realized it was one of the exotic dancers from one of the smaller establishments on Chartres; over the years I'd become friendly with several of the dancers as I would take my morning walk. We'd smile, wave, and exchange pleasantries. This morning I realized that even though I had said hello to this woman three times a week for four years, I didn't know her name. I smiled, hugged her back and told her how badly I felt that I never knew her name and she laughed "Dahlin, you know my name, it's Baby!" (Time to laugh out loud.)

We're dealing with a lot of time issues these days, time to meet the insurance specialist, time to call FEMA, time to put out the refrigerator, time to get a new refrigerator, time to decide whether to stay in New Orleans or head elsewhere, time to sell the house, time to buy the house, time to find a job, time to leave a job, time to find a new place to have a milonga or have a TangoFest, time to figure out the rest of your life.

Could we maybe, while dealing with all those time issues, take a minute and remember?

Remember that there was a time when all of this was different, there was a time when slaves were sold in the Napoleon House, a time when Mid-City was considered the country, a time when people staged sit ins downtown, a time when the Quarter burned, a time when people spoke French or Spanish, a time when the Opera House was open, a time when people danced the tango at the Loft523 on Tuesday nights, a time when August got hotter on the weekend of TangoFest, a time when this was all uninhabited, a time when refrigerators worked, houses were whole... neighborhoods weren't flooded and the city wasn't defined by a Hurricane.

More than any other city in this country, this is a city defined by the quality of the times people have had here. Maybe it's because it's a port city, maybe it's because of the food, maybe it's because of the heat, but this city remembers everyone who has ever lived, loved and danced here. People visit us because they can feel the difference as soon as they get here, they can feel how time is honored here, in the time to craft our houses and the time to make a roux. They can feel that the city holds all of our memories, our joys, our sorrows and our triumphs. That any time spent in New Orleans is kept in the breath, air, water and sky of New Orleans. What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in New Orleans changes the city and its people, minute-by-minute, day-by-day, year-by-year, so that we can't help but live in the past, present and future.

Time will tell what we will end up looking like, how strong the levees will be, how many houses will be repaired, but we will tell time how strong the people of New Orleans are, how deep our commitments to each other are, and that sometimes the best stories are the ones we write for ourselves.

Once upon a time in a city called New Orleans......Author unknown

By Cynthia Sarthou Executive Director Gulf Restoration Network

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast is facing is one of the most significant crises our nation has ever seen. The environmental damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita is unparalleled in scope: there are massive oil spills, million gallons of sewage, and catastrophic destruction of wetlands. Furthermore, the crisis is not restricted to the environment, it includes humanitarian, civic, and economic concerns.

Throughout our history the GRN has worked on many issues that have now been thrust into the spotlight: Coastal wetlands protection and restoration; the prioritization and effectiveness of Army Corps of Engineers projects, such as the New Orleans levees; and the most fundamental of issues - clean and healthful waters.

Although we know that each mile of coastal marsh diminishes a foot of storm-surge from hurricanes such as Katrina, coastal Louisiana continues to lose a football field’s worth of wetlands every hour, and coastal development in each of the Gulf states consumes even more wetland buffers, jeopardizing the nation’s oil infrastructure, Gulf seafood production, and, most visibly, our coastal cities. The GRN has worked to halt coastal wetland development, and we strongly advocate the development of the most effective restoration plan possible, in order to reverse our coastal wetlands loss. It is even more critical that we continue this work to ensure that additional coastal communities are not lost

The failure of New Orleans’ levee system was not a failure of engineering, but a failure of prioritization. Political leaders and the Army Corps of Engineers were aware that Louisiana’s levees could handle a category three storm at most, yet Corps resources were diverted to non-critical projects, such as , parking lots in Kentucky, and economically questionable locks-expansion projects. In the past, the GRN has worked to compel the Corps to prioritize its projects, and will continue to advocate for sensible prioritization of the Corps’ work, thereby mitigating threats to coastal communities, such as New Orleans.

Clean water is essential for the health and well-being of the people and the environment of the Gulf region. The effects of Hurricane Katrina on the availability of clean water in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have clearly illustrated this point. Unfortunately, even after the current crisis is resolved, throughout the entire Gulf region we will continue to encounter many waters which are too polluted for fishing and swimming. The GRN is committed to working with coastal communities to ensure that water is “drinkable, fishable and swimmable - the essential promises of the Clean Water Act.

Although the GRN’s mission has not changed, many of the issues at the heart of our mission now capture the nation’s attention and provide new challenges and opportunities. For example, the current crisis has made it almost inevitable that we will see every kind of legislative foolishness proposed in the name of accelerating the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, improving the nation's energy security, or the achievement of other, equally worthy, objectives. Also predictable is the present move by members of Congress to obtain waivers of environmental laws critical to the protection of public health and safety. In short, members of Congress are using the Katrina recovery as a cover for ideas which could never stand on their own, and do not fulfill Congress’s primary obligation--to help Gulf coast residents get back on their feet. The GRN is monitoring recovery efforts, and will work with its members to ensure that recovery efforts are not hijacked. It is essential that recovery proceeds in a manner that protects and restores the health of both our communities and the Gulf’s environmental resources.

The best course of action, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, is to make sure that the Gulf Coast rebuilds sustainably, and to ensure that actions taken in the name of recovery do not merely sow the seeds for future disasters.

Join me in flooding Washington! Louisiana groups have launched an effort to generate 300,000 e-mails demanding category 5 protection for New Orleans and Southern Louisiana. That means effective levees and flood control projects as well as comprehensive coastal wetlands restoration to give Southern Louisiana a critical storm buffer. Please take a second to help spread the word!

http://healthygulf.org/

By SHAILA DEWAN and JANET ROBERTS
Published: December 18, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - More than 100 of them drowned. Sixteen died trapped in attics. More than 40 died of heart failure or respiratory problems, including running out of oxygen. At least 65 died because help - shelter, water or a simple dose of insulin - came too late.

A study by The New York Times of more than 260 Louisianans who died during Hurricane Katrina or its aftermath found that almost all survived the height of the storm but died in the chaos and flooding that followed.

Read the complete story here,

The New York Times on December 11 wrote that the nation is about to
lose New Orleans: "The moment is upon us when a major American city
will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like
a museum."

These are sobering words for millions of Americans who genuinely love
the city of New Orleans. We are residents and former residents of the
city. We are tourists and conventioneers; history buffs and
architecture aficionados. We are jazz lovers, art collectors and
epicureans. We are tango dancers, teachers and promoters.

We are Americans who care about the future of New Orleans.

Please do not let New Orleans die. Please support every effort to help
its residents rebuild, restore and repopulate their great city. It is
up to us to save this significant American city.

Revitalizing New Orleans means building higher and stronger levees,
engineering better flood protection systems and the restoration of the
Gulf's wetlands. Each of these initiatives requires federal funding,
and your vote of support.

Please vote to save New Orleans.

This week, Congress will make a critical decision that may singularly
determine how a storm-devastated New Orleans will rebuild, and how
many of its scores of displaced residents will return to live and work
and dance tango among each other and with visitors from all over the
world.

Your legislative leaders have the power to fund a rebuilt levee system
designed to withstand the most powerful storms. Funding approval is
critical to the stability and the security of one of America's most
cherished cities.

Today, you have the power to be a Voice for New Orleans. Please take a
moment to send an e-mail to your legislators and ask them to support
the future of New Orleans. Let them know that protecting this city is
important to you, please.


Take action now at
http://www.democracyinaction.org/ovno/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1682

Published by the New York Times: December 11, 2005

We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.

We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.

There are many unanswered questions that will take years to work out, but one is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It all boils down to the levee system. People will clear garbage, live in tents, work their fingers to the bone to reclaim homes and lives, but not if they don't believe they will be protected by more than patches to the same old system that failed during the deadly storm. Homeowners, businesses and insurance companies all need a commitment before they will stake their futures on the city.

At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless ship. There is no effective leadership that we can identify. How many people could even name the president's liaison for the reconstruction effort, Donald Powell? Lawmakers need to understand that for New Orleans the words "pending in Congress" are a death warrant requiring no signature.

The rumbling from Washington that the proposed cost of better levees is too much has grown louder. Pretending we are going to do the necessary work eventually, while stalling until the next hurricane season is upon us, is dishonest and cowardly. Unless some clear, quick commitments are made, the displaced will have no choice but to sink roots in the alien communities where they landed.

The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane, which would involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new drainage canals and environmental restoration, would very likely run to well over $32 billion. That is a lot of money. But that starting point represents just 1.2 percent of this year's estimated $2.6 trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates the case, since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last week by the House of Representatives.

Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible case we fought to prevent?

Losing a major American city.

"We'll not just rebuild, we'll build higher and better," President Bush said that night in September. Our feeling, strongly, is that he was right and should keep to his word. We in New York remember well what it was like for the country to rally around our city in a desperate hour. New York survived and has flourished. New Orleans can too.

Of course, New Orleans's local and state officials must do their part as well, and demonstrate the political and practical will to rebuild the city efficiently and responsibly. They must, as quickly as possible, produce a comprehensive plan for putting New Orleans back together. Which schools will be rebuilt and which will be absorbed? Which neighborhoods will be shored up? Where will the roads go? What about electricity and water lines? So far, local and state officials have been derelict at producing anything that comes close to a coherent plan. That is unacceptable.

The city must rise to the occasion. But it will not have that opportunity without the levees, and only the office of the president is strong enough to goad Congress to take swift action. Only his voice is loud enough to call people home and convince them that commitments will be met.

Maybe America does not want to rebuild New Orleans. Maybe we have decided that the deficits are too large and the money too scarce, and that it is better just to look the other way until the city withers and disappears. If that is truly the case, then it is incumbent on President Bush and Congress to admit it, and organize a real plan to help the dislocated residents resettle into new homes. The communities that opened their hearts to the Katrina refugees need to know that their short-term act of charity has turned into a permanent commitment.

If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.

Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we admit it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives or dies.