Where ever you go, there you are.
I’ve written a couple of posts recently, angry posts, about New Orleans Nay sayers. I’ve been reading a lot of angry posts about Fred Radtke (although he’s becoming more of a joke, somehow) and a LOT of mean spirited political crap (it is, after all, an election year).
I read Louis Maistros post this morning, about seeing the Hot 8 Brass band at Sound Cafe, down the street. Then tonight, I tuned in to Nelson Mandela’s birthday concert on TV and sat back to absorb the music. The performers are heroes of rock, soul, r&b and more. The real hero being Nelson Mandela, himself, for the obvious reasons. I began to think, then, of the other heroes we have known, from Gandhi & Martin Luther King, Jr. to John Lennon and JFK.
It occured to me that, considering what they’ve gone through, the cats from Hot 8 are pretty fucking heroic, as well. Then there’s guys like Rex Dingler, giving away his art for free, and Loki, who sponsors this very site, allowing a voice and place to respond for all of New Orleans.
I realized who the real heroes are then. The real heroes are the little people, as all the previously mentioned, great & small were, or are. The people who just did what they thought was right, or what they could, or gave as much as possible or were just too tired or fed up to get pushed around or watch somebody else get pushed around anymore.
The heroes, my friends and neighbors, are in the mirror. You, the driver in a hurry that waits for the lady with the stroller to cross the street. The older woman who gives a quarter to the younger woman in the check out line who is just a little short. The person that smiles when you’re having a really bad day. An internet friend who answers a relative stranger with the blues. An entire city, far from recovered, who sends money, food and volunteers to the corn belt, because they know how bad it can be. Sometimes it’s in what we don’t say. Sometimes in letting someone talk too long, because you know how bad it hurts to be ignored. Each of us, on any given day, is given the chance to be quietly heroic. Without accolades. Without rewards. Without any recognition, whatsoever.
So for you, and you may not know it, but I mean you, & you and all of you, I salute your quiet heroism in these long days of trial we face as a city, a nation, as human beings trying to get through another day on Planet Earth. It’s not easy, not giving up these days. So for each and every one that hangs in there to do the right thing, to make it better in any way, to be part of a solution, I salute you, heart & soul.
It makes it a little easier for all of us every day.
I just thought you might wanna know, it matters.
It matters to me.
Every single day.
So thanks.
All of you.
You fucking rock.
Lord David
Pirate & Artist
Skull Club
New Orleans
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