Are You Ready For Some Football?
"The good news is - and it's hard for some to see it now - that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before."
"Out of the rubble of Trent Lott's house - he's lost his entire house - there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."
-GW Bush, 9/2/2005
We've come a long way, baby. One year and 185 million dollars later, the Superdome has gotten a facelift. No more eau de death, rape, mayhem, and homelessness. Just astroturf, pigskin, and beer. They even lowered the ticket prices for us! Football cares about homeless, displaced, jobless people.
66% of New Orleans public schools are open and only 7% of St. Bernard's public schools are open. 0% of St. Bernard's and 50% of Orlean Parrish hospitals are up and running. 44% of New Orleans' grocery stores are open. Unemployment is sky high. Why spend 185 million dollars on football, you ask?
Loopholes are a politicians best friend. Under the Stafford Act, federal disaster money can only be used to repair state-owned buildings. Of course.
"In bringing the Superdome back, and getting it back on the fast track," Superdome spokesman Bill Curl said, "we saved, not only the full Saints season, and not only got Monday Night Football out of it, but we saved the Tulane [college football] season. We saved the New Orleans Bowl, which is the first game of the bowl season.
"We saved the high school football championships, which means 50,000 from all over the state for a weekend. We saved the Bayou Classic [the annual football game between historically black colleges Grambling State and Southern], which always fills the place."
I wish I had made that up. At least we got football. Schools, hospitals, food, and jobs may be privileges, the Saints are our right. According to Governor Kathleen Blanco: "It's [Superdome] now a symbol of our recovery. It stands as a symbol of all of our experiences over the past year."
As we spend money rebuilding symbols, New Orleans real estate is in a clusterfuck. Rents have gone up 39% since Katrina, and federal aid is only going to homeowners. Let's do the math together: 859 million for renters, 7.5 billion for homeowners. One billion is one thousand times one million.
As we spend money rebuilding symbols, New Orleans real estate is in a clusterfuck. Rents have gone up 39% since Katrina, and federal aid is only going to homeowners. Let's do the math together: 859 million for renters, 7.5 billion for homeowners. One billion is one thousand times one million.
The Superdome is a symbol. A symbol of misplaced priorities. A symbol of supremacy. A symbol of where we stand. A symbol of how far we need to go.
Anger, frustration, and rage do not need words to be communicated.
posted by vik on Monday, September 25, 2006
4 Comments:
Truer words, Vik.
And that Live at Birdland albums amazing.
Damn, that's why ground zero is still a clusterfuck. No stadiums or arenas. That the SuperDome is reopened is a national disgrace.
So what is the Mayor of New Orlean's, Ray Nagin doing? Nothing? And people voted him back in? Ask him about all the buses he had ready to evacuate people, but he didn't. Easier to flap the old tongue and blame someone else eh, Ray?
Tell me, did New Orleans have its own government or was it a protectorate of the feds? Does everyone just sit and whine for the feds when things go wrong?
Hell why don't we all just expect Kofi Annan to do everything? Like he did in Rwanda?
Man this place is so bad I'm goin to Zimbabwe where they have a Real leader!
dp - good point....at least they had a stadium to rebuild...A SYMBOL.
mugabe - it gets frustrating....just turn on some curtis mayfield.....it gets a little better
siah - what's good? coltrane is good for the soul
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