Don’t stand for being stood up.
Have you ever been stood up? Had someone promise to come and take you out, meet you for some reason, set a time & date and then just not show up? No call, no reschedule, nothing? Even worse, you run in to them later, and they’re deeply engrossed in someone else, ignoring you completely? I have.
And if you live in New Orleans, so have you.
Let’s start with the President. Of the United States of America. Arguably the most powerful national leader on the planet. Supposed to have a hand in solving the world’s problems. Well, besides that being a cruel joke all it’s own, he told us he’d be back. He told us it would be better. He told us we would get rebuilt. He stood us up, left us at the gate.
Then there’ Ray Nagin, the second term Mayor of New Orleans, who makes his appearences as August 29th approaches, and, in his sense of duty, has decided not to run for Governor just yet, because the city might need him. How about finishing the job you have, Mister Nagin? The one that’s still not out of the starting gate. The gate where you left us, stood us up.
In a more entertaining aspect is radio talkshow host Neil Bortz, broadcast on WIST, right here in New Orleans. He flew down to our fair city right after Katrina, is his cute little Cessna and told the station managers and employees that “he’d be back” like the Terminator. He never returned. Somehow, he got enough insight duing his little visit to appraise our situation well.
He frequenlty rants on his daily program, in a stylishly squealing voice, about Katrina Refugees. New Orleans is full of ‘em. Sitting around waiting for a bag of money. Won’t do a damn thing to help themselves, all they gotta do is roll up their sleeves and get to work… In the stood-up-date senerio, I suppose Mister Bortz is like the School Dork, who heard rumours about the girl, never dated her, but wrote nasty things on the wall, anyway. Like her, I have three words: buzz off, creep.
Last night I watched a news crew across the street on Helen Hill’s doorstep. Reporting on the New Reward. I told them that the news crews were there, too, when I asked Troy Carter & the NOPD reps to walk to Spain & Rampart with me. In front of the Town Hall meeting, they declined, saying that we should report crime by email. The cameras watched me tell them that somebody was gonna get killed over there by year’s end if steps weren’t taken. Helen was dead five days into 2007.
Sorry Helen.
We tried.
We got stood up.
Again.
Getting stood up on a date, or having a creep say ugly, untrue things about you is part of growing up. We’ve done our growing up here, I hope. We don’t have to take that anymore. The realization that everyone is not your friend is a tough one, a rite of passage duly noted by Shakespeare & Salinger, a catharsis that brings us to something new in & from ourselves. Let’s have one now, shall we?
The government is not your friend. From City Hall to the White House, they are not looking out for you. They are trying to get elected, stay in office, become power brokers, control your money, your country, your life. These elected officers are using you as a career move.
Neither is the corporate press your friend. They are selling fast food and diet pills, MTV and the New Fall Line to make you look as unique as everyone else, for twice the price. They are reporting sensationalist news bites to get ratings and assisting the political powers that feed them best.
Paris Hilton & Britney Spears are not your friends. They don’t know you exist, and wouldn’t let you carry their coffee if you somehow got past their security. They are junkies for your attention, spoiled beyond measure and clueless as to the state in which we live. Stop reading about them. Ignore them until they go away.
I could go on & on, but I believe you get the picture, so I won’t. Why? Because I AM your friend. Really. How can you tell? Because I don’t want anything from you. I want things for you. Like a better life. Less hardship. The truth. Yes, the truth. The TRUTH. So here’s a little bit right now, just to prove I’m serious…
You can have your life back.
You can make things right.
How, you ask?
Vote, for starters. But not the Old Way. The New Way. Learn who your choices are, from City Council to Congress and the White House. Go on line, or get a newspaper and read about them. What do they say they believe and how have they shown that? Does their voting record reflect their commitments & promises? Did they steal stuff last time, do they cheat on their spouses or did they go to rehab? These are stupid romantic cliches for Hollywood Stars, not for the people who run your country.
Are they career politicians, jumping from job to job in order to further their own greed? This isn’t Wall Street in the eighties, and a lot of those people went to jail, anyway.
Do they say they can get you special treatment? Even if they can, they do it by short changing someone else. The hell with that. Your dirty end of the stick will certainly come around. Maybe with the FBI in tow.
So, here we are. Where you knew we’d be eventually.You have to work at it. You have to get involved. You have to make a difference. Why? Because you can. Because it’s not right to put people in formaldehyde ridden trailers, demolish their homes, tie their recovery money up in special interests, take their sons & daughters and send them halfway around the world to die in some god forsaken place while their families are forgotten in the Ninth Ward and Canal Stret gets rows of palm trees. That’s why.
And if that insanity isn’t enough, then do it to be a friend to someone that needs one. There’s a lot of that around. I know, I’m your friend. I may not know you, or ever have seen you, but I am. You’e the one who got screwed by the electric company during the hottest months of the year, the one who didn’t get the job because you don’t speak spanish, the one who had wind insurance instead of flood or flood instead of wind. The one that came back and found your job outsourced to cheaper lands where lead paint on your childrens’ toys is No Big Deal. You’re the one who the magazines say is too fat, too short, too skinny, too black, too white, too poor, too old.
And you know what? I love you anyway. Each and every one of you. I’m sure you’re a pain in the ass sometimes, too. Because you’re just like me. An American in New Orleans trying to make it work. Someone who got stood up.
So here’s the part where I ask for something. You knew it was coming. Here it is. But it’s not for me. It’s for all of us. In fact, it’s for you.
Please, make a difference.
Get involved.
Have meetings at your neighbors’s houses.
Drink beer or coffee, or koolaid for that matter, and talk to each other like I’m talking to you.
End this madness.
Vote these assholes out of a job.
Elect Ed from down the street, or Thibodeaux from the Parish.
Somebody who only wants what you want.
A fair deal.
For God’s sake, stop voting for crooks and thieves because you recognize their names. I’ve listened to guys in a bar name every player in the NFL and all their stats. Learn this much about the folks that hold your future, your children’s future, in the palm of their hand. And act. Now. Take back your life. It’s the only one you’re ever going to have. Don’t waste it, my friend. And don’t stand for being stood up. You’re better than that. Aren’t you? I certainly think so.
.
Lord David
Pirate & Artist
Skull Club
New Orleans
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Good piece, David. But I suspect that on this forum, you’re preaching to the converted. If we use an alternative news site on a computer, chances are pretty good that we are already tapped in to your way of thinking.
Apathy & ignorance have ruled this town for so long that voting by name recogonition will continue to win over competence. I’ve never been so politically active as I have been since moving to New Orleans. I’ve been to town hall meetings, gone to rallies, voted in my local elections. And still, I see people get elected because they use big words (anyone know what “ameliorate” means? No? Great, let’s use it two MORE times) or someone knows who they daddy was, or he’s the same color as me, so he must be best for the job. It’s aggravating as hell.
And until this city takes responsibility for raising its children, engineers an uncompromising stance on the success of its schools, and curtails gang culture, I fear for more of the same. People who don’t realize they HAVE choices won’t vest interest in MAKING them.
“…and talk to each other like I’m talking to you.”
That’s how it starts…that’s how it always starts.
Geez, Marrus…
Are you suggesting that I should assume everyone who reads humid city already thinks this way, and just shut up?
If everybody already knows these things, then why aren’t our problems solved? Should we all quietly wait for someone else to speak & act?
The point being made here is encouragement. Human behavior is such that we seek validation, encouragement, and the support of friends. I believe in the underdog, especially when they’re right. Many of us do. Perhaps they’d like to hear about it.
I never claimed to hold a record for having been hurt or frustrated by the experiences of Post-Katrina New Orleans, but I’ve had 7 friends murdered in less than a year and I want to say something about it. Simple as that. I’m not suggesting that nobody else feels this way. I’m befriending those that do.
“The city taking responsibility” as you put it, begins with individuals. What better way to do that then to put ourselves and our beliefs on the line, for all to see, as often as possible? Isn’t that exactly the way to deal with “people who don’t realize they have choices…”?
Congratulations on your activism. Any little bit helps. Maybe you can repost these materials in a place you think will reach more readers. Please be aware that these articles are also posted verbatum on several other sites. If we all do what we can, perhaps it will be enough. Let’s hope….
In the meantime, I wear my heart on my sleeve.
I think you should “just shut up”? Of course not, and if you read that into my response and took umbrage, then my apologies.
I responded as I would an opinion piece, and didn’t realize that you were sounding off in response to the tragic loss of your friends. However, I stand by my opinion, that yes, most readers of this blog DO agree with you, but I also know that the more of us verbalizing and publishing our beliefs & frustration with the status quo, the better. The message must get out there, on all fronts.
Rather than being upset with me, you might be flattered that I chose take the time to respond to the writing. No offense meant.
I love you Marrus. No umbrage taken. Together we shall make a difference.
I just want to jump in quickly and say that you certainly shouldn’t give up on reaching out to community activists around the U.S. as well, many of whom I’m certain are already working in partnership with organizations in NOLA. If many of these folks won’t randomly find themselves looking at a blog like Humid City, then try to reach out and educate the “outsiders.” People like myself are not artists, have only visited NOLA a couple of times, and have no idea what it’s like to be living there now. But all citizens of the U.S. who have ANY kind of sense of “national identity” MUST care about the fate of New Orleans. Or put another way, if you WANT to feel proud of having a national identity, then if you remind yourself of all the best things about New Orleans, then you’ll feel better about having that national identity.
So, what does someone like me, who lives far away and is hardly any kind of New Orleans scholar, find so special about NOLA? Do I have any right to even TALK about this? I can’t tell you that for sure, but what I can tell you is: I have the impression from afar that in pre-Katrina New Orleans, you were more likely than in most areas of most U.S. cities to find that a high concentration of people knew others who lived on the same few blocks, and many people lived in the same houses where they had grown up. In other words, there was relatively less transience and mobility compared to many other cities. So that’s why it was so especially devastating for people to lose their homes and basically everything they’d ever known.
I have also obtained the impression that historically, New Orleans was a very unique melting pot in which people of all walks of life were more likely to live pushed right up next to one another, more so than any other city. People of different races and ethnicities, rich and poor, mixed and mingled with relatively less prejudice than other cities (and this was a major factor in the development of jazz as a genre, among other things). But at some point in the early through mid twentieth century NOLA could no longer remain immune to the terrible and vicious cancer of Racism that had taken hold of much of the rest of the South (and the nation)… so, starting in the early 1900′s and moving forward throughout the rest of the 20th century, things became increasingly segregated, partly through a process of “white flight” to the suburbs which of course mirrors a pattern in many other U.S. cities.
But nonetheless, in pre-Katrina New Orleans quite a bit of the original magic of the city’s culture still held firm despite all the corruption and urban decay. So, it was a place worth fighting for then, and still is worth fighting for now. So may the god(s) bless all of you sticking it out down there and fighting the good fight (including any pagan gods or goddesses one may worship — and my apologies to athiests who may be reading). And DO reach out to the “outsiders”!!!! I would avoid getting into an ingroup-outgroup, “us vs. them” bunker mentality. (Even if you think that *I*, as an outsider, have just babbled on like a blithering fool! There are many folks out there much smarter and more cultured than I am!).
p.s. O.k., Geez, I must really sound so clueless that people don’t even want to take the time to criticize me for sounding like so much of a nutball! I’d also left some comments awhile ago that no one responded to. Ahem.
So maybe I will elicit a response if I put this another way: You’ve said that all the people who life in cities other than NOLA are stuck in their “plastic lives” and have no idea of how amazing it is to work our asses off to rebuild our homes and save our city — and to be directly in touch with the realities of life and death, which only makes the joys of life that much sweeter, etc.
So, would you then advise that the outsiders should find a way to drop our plastic lives, aspire to become professional artists or musicians who don’t have to work full-time “day jobs,” and move to NOLA… because that’s the only place in the world where you can truly, passionately appreciate life. In other words, life in any other city could only be a pale shadow of life in New Orleans (either pre- or post-K?)
One thing that strikes me is that this perspective ignores the experience of NON-artists in New Orleans; or people who are only pursuing art or music as a hobby and wouldn’t WANT to drop whatever other kind of “day job” or career they are pursuing even if they COULD.
Another point that comes up is that some people do have a sense of national identity and are proud to be part of the same country as New Orleans, Louisiana. And from a standpoint of national identity, these individuals are deeply ashamed at the failures of our national government to help citizens of NOLA, & deeply worried about the future of the city. Or, maybe in some cases it is simply a case of Global identity and being proud to exist on the same Planet as the city of New Orleans. Perhaps it is better to eschew national identity and strive for Global identity, whenever possible. But whichever way it is, many such citizens find a way to move to NOLA if only for a limited period of time to work on rebuilding projects. They might not be artists and might have no intention of becoming artists, but they are going down to NOLA and making substantial contributions that will ultimately help artists there. And even the people who go down as pure tourists are going to help you out if they purchase some of your artwork before returning to their plastic lives.
So… I dunno, I’d just think about how you wanted to present a face to the “Outsiders” or the “Nonartists”… or maybe reflect on how CERTAIN you are that there aren’t subcultures or communities in other cities where people don’t know how to feel very deeply and live life passionately in full awareness of the realities of the cycle of birth and death.
Finally…I think of myself as being outside of a passionate life… but I think that’s because I’m a kind of hung up, withdrawn person, and I’d probably be that way even if I were currently an NOLA artist! HA! (That’s a joke on myself, mate). Peace — Ferris Wheel
p.s. That should have read “rebuild THEIR homes and save THEIR city” — I got confused for a moment about which voice I was using (that is, I got confused for a moment about whose perspective I was speaking from). (Or “the perspective from which I was speaking…” might be a better way to put it).
I’ve re-read my original remarks several times and still cannot find these mentions of “plastic lives” and “non-artists” you speak of. Not suprising, I know, because I never said such things.
As a former resident of NYC, Washington, DC and Negril, Jamaica, I would also never refer to other cities and places as pale reflections of New Orleans. Each place I have lived has it’s ambience and culture, made by the living population, artistic or otherwise. Living itself is the one true art, my friend. Getting your quotes right helps. Not putting words in the mouth of others can help lead to better understanding. Let your conscience be your guide. Oh, yeah…and whistle while you work. Peace, D.
Hi, Thanks for the response. and I feel extremely stupid about what I said. First of all, it might be coming across like I am ANTI-artist — which is totally NUTS!!!! I am a huge fan of “starving artists” in ANY city, whether they are working full-time day jobs to support their trade, part-time day jobs or are actually able to pursue their art full-time (without working any other job). And I did not mean to suggest that I think that all New Orleans’ artists are able to avoid working “day jobs,” either — I’m certain that even though the cost of living and renting is still cheaper than many other places, some artists still have to work other odd jobs in order to get by.
The main reason I’ve been commenting periodically on NOLA blogs is I’ve been trying to sort out where I stand, where and how I can make a contribution to the city, since I live far away. The only thing I can think of at the moment, is I do have one fairly wealthy relative. If I could convince him to make a donation to an organization working in New Orleans, do you have any recommendations as to which is a good, local organization?
Otherwise, it’s really seeming to me that unless I felt able and willing to make the commitment to actually MOVE to New Orleans, or at least nearby, and work for an organization and/ or get involved with local politics there, it’s very hard to affect things from afar — in terms of legislation that affects rebuilding, etc. And for a variety of reasons, some quite personal, it would be COMPLETELY, TOTALLY unfeasible for me to move to New Orleans now, even if the rewards of being there would far outweigh the risks for many folks.
So it seems to make sense that I’ll pull back from commenting for a time, until/ unless I see some way towards further involvement. But to anyone who is listening, thank you for your time.
Peace to you, F.W.
p.s. I would certainly not complain, though, about my tax dollars being used to help NOLA, contrary to the ‘Epistle from the USA’ post!!! (And I’m NOT making THAT quote up) It seems to me that basically any modestly sane person, north, south, east or west U.S., is furious about the tax dollars being wasted in Iraq, and would LOVE to see a good hunk of that funding re-directed to New Orleans. (And wish that it had been done YEARS ago).
p.s. I’m definitely even more committed to stopping this commenting, because now I feel like an idiot for using the cliche “starving artists” — I should have just said struggling artists, or non-mainstream artists, or maybe even just ARTISTS. Period. Because what I respect most about artists is when I think they are incredibly talented, and it’s just on my own judgment because I’ve never formally studied art history or art criticism, all I know about is what I’ve read about or looked at in my own time, such going to Open Studios events when I have time or etc.; or from my own past experiences in dabbling in drawing, painting, guitar, etc. Which are mostly experiences from the past, but may grow again sometime in the future.
Obviously, I don’t like to see ANYONE not knowing where their next meal is coming from, artist or otherwise; and while I’ve never been quite that poor myself, if I don’t watch out I could BECOME that poor… if I don’t stop myself sitting around taking too much time obsessing over blog postings and comments! When I should do more practical things, like continuing my job search!
Again, thank you for your time, and Peace.