Finding a Home, Finding an Identity

How does one describe being from New Orleans? Of the City's intrinsic beauty, its pride, its excitement, its devotion to a team and to a Faith? Can things such as this be quantified or measured? Can it be snuffed out, washed to sea, blown away? Can anyone defeat such a Joy in Life as well as in death, where death is no time for mourning but celebrating the Past? The answer is found in the embodiment of a team that isn't just a team, it's part of the intrinsic nature of New Orleans. The Saints are New Orleans. And New Orleans is the Saints. Summed up in so many words: WHO DAT!

And this is what is interesting above all about New Orleans: a paradoxical love and a faith that withstands every countenance of despair and attempt of shedding. It is found in a city that weaves in a faith not blind to life, but rather one lived inside of it. It is neighbor helping neighbor. It is the yearly Carnival celebrations beside one's fellow neighbor that, indeed, they've survived another hurricane season. It is celebrations of the Saints win or lose (but especially with the wins).

Places of childhood do not leave one's mind—not the good or the bad, not the ugly or the indifferent. So it is with me—yet the last thing New Orleans will leave you as is indifferent. Not even hurricanes, which wipe off many markers of the past, or man-made engineering disasters, which finish off where Mother Nature began her work, not even these disasters will tear from memory these mementos of days gone by. New Orleans is altogether different, another category altogether.

The place has a way of instilling both a pride of place and a sadness of when progress has been stopped, delayed, or hampered. It breeds la joie de vivre and disappointment. It is a city that is far from perfect, but it is one of distinctiveness that all who are associated with it take great pride in. It is an identity that no hurricane or distance can dissipate.

It is a city that has been, since its inception, a city to be documented, but not only documented but also lived. It is a city to live vicariously in, whether it is of the past, present, or the future. They are all contained within the ramparted streets of that unique leveed city. Once you are there, you never truly depart.

One always has a piece of the city whether you've been there a day, a year, or a lifetime. The only difference is that when you move away, you become an ambassador of that spirit of life shared. It speaks to the soul like no other place in world can. And sometimes, when the voices get to be too many, one cannot realize this until it is the only voice to remain from the sprawl and noise of another place, a place where all things are manufactured and not grown, a place where the façade is the only thing present.

Yet, one's ambassadorship remains, as though one is left in a second-rate hotel room waiting out the exile to return home. It is a strange love affair that New Orleans breeds. One that remains as thick as the humid air of that river city and remains despite all odds.

More now than ever does New Orleans and the Gulf Coast need its ambassadors. Love affairs do not end once the beloved is gone, they only grow stronger. And, in it, the bonds of those who traveled those hallowed streets, celebrated its unique joy, and lived in those homes now rebuilt but not forgotten can be remembered, renewed, and represented to others as a reminder of the ones who did not make it out of the surly floodwaters or the strong headwinds of the Gulf, of the ones who survived Katrina those five years ago this day if only as a memory to our hearts, to our Louisiana.



If any song will bring me back to Louisiana... if songs had the power to do such things... this one would be it. Louisiana will always be home to me with New Orleans as its heart, wrapped in a faith true.

God bless New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, and the whole Gulf Coast as we mark this fifth anniversary of the Storm that did not break the will of people of the Gulf Coast. It may have washed the shores of a challenged land, but its people will not waver. Its people will not retreat. Its people will prosper and rebuild and renew a place, a face of what is best about America. God bless Louisiana.

The Spirit of Louisiana & Post-Katrina Two Years Later

My, what changes in two years and what doesn't. Today is the second anniversary of the manmade and natural disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. It is this day that I honor the city of New Orleans, my birthplace and my cultural home. The city is what has helped define who I was and who I am now. Katrina has since wiped the landscape of my home. However, what's far worse than the rain, storm surge, or strong winds is the lack of progress done by the governments and government entities to getting a city that must be saved—not because of cultural sentiments alone but for the national significance for trade and industry—saved. It is a vital component in the nation's shipping, oil, and agriculture industries. And the Federal government, especially the Corps of Engineers, has failed horribly. Read more on that in Douglas Brinkley's recent Washington Post Op-Ed piece Reckless Abandonment.

The Corps has not been anything more than a stumbling block organization that works simply off Congressional earmarks. The Corps has failed the city's citizens; Congress has failed the city's citizens; the President has failed the city's citizens; the State of Louisiana has failed the city's citizens; and the City of New Orleans has failed the city's citizens.

City must be saved. The levees must be fully repaired. The Federal government must follow through its obligations. It is sickening to see the lack of progress in rebuilding because of a lack of funding and the lack of urgency by the Federal government...especially President George W. Bush. So he'll be in New Orleans on the anniversary, but all he has done and will do is mere lip service to what needs to be done. There is no wonder why so many dislike the jobs done by both Congress and the president. It is time for change and it should start with them, or the people of New Orleans will drift even further from national consciousness.

The one thing that is still going strong is the city's powerhouse local CBS affiliate station, WWL-TV. It broadcasted throughout the storm, covered live streaming coverage on the web 24-7 for the entire week of the storm and its aftermath, and provided me an amazing porthole into the manmade disaster that followed the rains, winds, and storm surge.

I remember the station from my youth and it's ever present "The Spirit of Louisiana" station advertising campaign. According to WWL-TV's web site, the campaign's line was inspired by the now-late WWL-TV journalist Bill Elder in the 20 years before the start of the campaign, which started in 1990. You can read more about the history of the station’s image campaign here.

The "Spirit of Louisiana" image campaign was in its 15th season when Hurricane Katrina tried to drown the Spirit. Trust me, however, it is alive and well. See some of the pre-Katrina videos (the ones from the 1990's) here and the last ones from 2005 here. The city will never be the same again, but it has the tenacity to outlive other calamities and surely this time too a better city will rise from the floodwaters.

With the help of the media and groups willing to make the city better in the long-term, the city will be back better than ever, but we cannot let the reconstruction go by idly. It is time for us as a nation to take on our responsibility as one that can do most anything we put our might to and accomplish the tasks that need to be done not because it should be done but because it must be done.

May the Spirit of Louisiana that makes Louisiana home not fail a city so in need of leadership. Vive la Louisiane!

Remembering Katrina

One year ago today, a great tragedy happened, one that was foreseen but not remember. Let us all not forget the lessons learned that fateful day and those perilous days afterward. New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and the whole nation needs healing and needs unity after such a tragic event, and healing will only come after the bickering and finger-pointing stops. Now is the time to rebuild.

We must learn and grow from the disaster that was--and still is--Hurricane Katrina. I pray that we never forget those lives lost and those lives changed forever.

Out of Darkness Comes Light

Finally a day with some cool weather. No rain to speak of from the Storm, just lots and lots of steady wind. Oddly enough it did feel like autumn, since we're already into our second day of it...supposedly. Nevertheless, it has been a very nice day here, much better than expected.

I have plenty to be thankful for. The day off we were given on Friday was a nice break. It allowed us students to volunteer at local shelters for those evacuating from the coastal regions. It also acted as a sort of second Saturday...three day weekends are always nice. That being said, after a productive day on Friday I've had a seriously lazy streak today. I haven't done much, but I'll get my act together for Monday. I moved the car from the Central campus garage this evening and couldn't help but notice the perfectly clear blue skies. It was about 7 p.m. when I passed by Kyle Field on my way to the Koldus garage, around the time the A&M football game was scheduled. It was perfect football weather, absolutely perfect fall weather. How ironic.

"I Still Heart New Orleans"

Today's daily mass reading that, although not originally meant for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, certainly now fits. May we do God's will in our actions and pray that God grant us the strength to persevere.

Brothers and sisters:
From the day we heard about you, we do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with every power, in accord with his glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light. He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

--Colossians 1:9-14 NAB

A Day of Prayer for Katrina's Victims

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco called for today to be a day of prayer for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. They opened up today's press conference with a set of prayers from the Archbishop of New Orleans Hughes and other spiritual leaders from the area. It was a very moving thing to see.

This is today's Bible verse from a Bible calendar I received over the summer is a very insightful and true statement for what the Lord will require of all us in the coming months of recovery from Hurricane Katrina. It goes as follows:

All that you have commanded we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. -- Joshua 1:16 NASB.

May God bless those affected by Katrina, those who are helping to bring things back to a sort of normalcy, and those who have perished because of this awful natural disaster. May God changes the hearts of those inconsiderate and greedy looters that their dangerous activities may cease so that peace and order can be returned to the ravaged communities. May God be with all today and every day. Amen.

Hurricane Katrina

This is THE ONE. It's it, and there's no doubt about it now. I've been vigilantly watching it on the local CBS affiliate in New Orleans WWL-TV since I've learned of the doomsday track aimed at New Orleans Saturday evening. Surprisingly, I failed to keep my eye on the storm since it's beginnings because of my vacation and move back to College Station. My family and friends have since moved out of harm's way, thankfully, and now all we can do is watch now and pray.

160 MPH sustained winds and at one time stronger than Camille...may God have mercy on those still in the city there. A once-in-a-lifetime storm, thank God.