New Orleans will never be the same again, neither in reality nor in our imaginations (if one is able to distinguish between the two). The Big Easy, once the symbol of a sort of Francohedonistic culture right here in the U.S.A., will now forever be thought of in terms of tragedy, just like the World Trade Center or the federal building in Oklahoma City.
The home of Louis Armstrong is now gone, and I bid it a fond farewell. Flannery O'Connor once wrote that New Orleans is one place where the devil's existence is freely acknowledged, and it seems like old Belial has come and reclaimed the town for himself.
However the city is rebuilt, if the city is rebuilt, it will always be watched nervously as the next storm develops in the Gulf, the next time the Mississippi floods, and the next time earthquakes shake the Reelfoot fault zone.
Goodbye, New Orleans.
1 comment:
New Orleans has to come back. Really, seriously, truly.
It's too damned important a place not to have it come back.
But let's face it- it's like Warsaw or Tokyo at the end of WWII destroyed.
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