Tons and tons of pictures on the way. I’m going to break them into a few posts so you don’t break your browser. The first is of Jeep in the cab of the Penske truck. The words "Diesel Fuel" are interesting, since this picture was taken on the day the hurricane hit the coast. Days later, our already very expensive trips to the gas station would have been much worse. Also, at the time this picture was taken, we had no idea of the scope of the disaster occuring:
Goodbye, New Orleans
Originally uploaded by dannyman.
Such a beautiful and fascinating city, and now it’s become this. I have spent a lot of time in New Orleans over the years — my college boyfriend and my aunt and uncle are from Baton Rouge. If I hadn’t gotten my placement in Memphis, Orleans Parrish was my next choice for internship sites. My ex-husband was bringing his cats to reside with his current S.O. because he’s heading off to Dublin, Ireland for a one-year position. He and his cats were evacuated. His S.O. had just moved all of her stuff to the city to begin a tenure-track position at the University of New Orleans. Now she is homeless, and academics are the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. The current anarchic situation is breaking my heart. Many of the people living in the city were already living in generational poverty, much like many of the people of Memphis with whom I worked this year. It was already a desperate place, and without the basic necessities of shelter, food, water, and sanitation, aggression and paranoia were sure to set in. The responses of people looking in from the outside will no doubt be disgust at the behavior of these people, but many had been given up on long ago. If only Bush hadn’t already spent all the money elsewhere.
We are here. We are still working, but now it’s UNpacking. The girls were little troopers in the car. The neighbors we’ve met so far have been great. I am definitely going to have to learn some Spanish. More as my energy is less focused on unpacking!
Now you all know I’m kind of anti-politics unless it involves a personal story of some kind, but man, the first pane of this week’s Modern World cracked me up!
Hilarious.
