Three of the six winners of the Ashley Morris award for excellence in New Orleans blogging to date. These are phenomenal people.

It appears America up and exploded in these past few weeks. Specifically in the last few days. But It’s All Under Control. As you were.

On August 22nd, a 400-person riot broke out in the peaceful, hippie-beatnik town of Ft. Collins, Colorado. Irony: It happened right after Earth, Wind & Fire performed at something called NewWestFest’s Bohemian Nights. Public take: A bunch of folks came to see OMG Earth, Wind & Fire OMG and began to beat each other up. Those people. Reality: A shoving match between two drunk morons escalated to a surrounding collection of drunk morons. Drunk morons in groups. Go figure.

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A September 1st University of New Orleans student demonstration against Governor Jindal’s drastic reduction of the state’s education budget “turned rowdy.” A handful of students barricaded themselves inside a building and another group marched on the administration building and *horror* stormed Dean Wormer’s office to re-enact The Strawberry Statement would not leave. Two protesters were arrested, peace has been restored to Louisiana and students can expect tuition increases while Jindal hits the American interstates with his success story. It’s all in how you spin budget cuts, you see.

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Then there’s the eco-freak who held three people hostage inside Discovery Channel HQ while program directors looked up the Wikipedia reference for Malthus. Wait for the right-wing airwaves to buzz with the “it is only terrorism when environmentalists, liberals and Muslims do it” message, while they conveniently ignore Crackpot Manifesto Item #5, which calls for “solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that.” Which is not too far off from the wingnut’ I Detest You (But Damn You Mow My Lawn For Cents On The Dollar Sssshhh We’ll Keep You Around) view of illegal immigration, so like Artemio Muniz, admitted “anchor baby” and writer at Texas GOP Vote, I have to ask

While the media focuses on the “eco-rant” of James Lee, ask yourself, is this a terror act from a man who was an extremist of an emerging cult or pseudo-religion? Or was he just plain crazy? Either way, why are some “Republicans” willing to use the same talking points as James Lee?

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Yesterday, NOAA “reopened a 5,130-square-mile stretch of [Gulf of Mexico] waters from far eastern Louisiana into western Florida to commercial and recreational fishing” [link]. The sponge and starfish frolicked on the beach hand in hand singing, “I say Moratorium, you say Affecting Operations, let’s call the whole thing off!” As if the Gulf of Mexico needs any more trouble at this juncture, Mariner Energy’s Vermilion 380 platform exploded yesterday while still in production. Thankfully, the lives of its 13 crew members were spared, the fire was just put out and shutoff equipment worked, but what the hell?

On the day before the explosion, a Mariner Energy spokesperson reportedly derided the Obama administration’s moratorium on drilling (which incidentally does not affect shallow water operations like the Vermilion 380):

“I have been in the oil and gas industry for 40 years, and this administration is trying to break us,” said Barbara Dianne Hagood, senior landman for Mariner Energy, a small company. “The moratorium they imposed is going to be a financial disaster for the gulf coast, gulf coast employees and gulf coast residents.”

Not if the Gulf Coast and its residents and workers are dead or dying from these explosions and its consequences first. You’re breaking yourselves and have only your poorly-ordered priorities, shoddy safety guidelines and inability to manage risk to blame. Do you know what people said about BP and Mariner before April 20th, back when you were doing your jobs relatively properly in the Gulf of Mexico? Nothing. So, quit whining, buy what you broke and fix your company. And remember that you’re not exactly adding to the return on your stockholders’ and national investment at this point.

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After I left New Orleans this past Sunday, what I got from many was, “I watched the Katrina Anniversary specials on cable news this past weekend and thought of you. It looks like New Orleans is really coming back and that the nation’s help worked.” My response, “I appreciate that you did, but wish you were at the launch of A Howling In The Wires and the fifth annual Rising Tide conference, where you would have learned what cable news didn’t tell you then and will never ever tell you.” That:

- the “nation’s money” has still not made it to the right people, i.e. even regular, middle-class folks desperately trying to return home, forget the poor,

- public safety, healthcare and education are age-old problems in New Orleans that will take more than five years and national apathy or sympathy to solve,

- tourism is not a sustainable economy and, if a child’s reward for doing well in a New Orleans school is shucking your oysters and slinging your drinks, why the hell should he or she bother? Why should he or she not turn to a life of crime if it offers more pay and social respect?

- New Orleans may be a cultural island but not a political or economic one and that decisions made at the federal and state levels do affect the city; we are all interconnected this way, and

- for the love of god, you watched FoxMSNBCBSNN. These idiots don’t know their New Orleans geography beyond the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets (you should have seen the number of newsvans with satellites parked outside the Royal Sonesta hotel) and you take them seriously? Then, these douchebags establish other douchebags – Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, Mary Landrieu, Ray Nagin and Douglas Brinkley – as The Experts, who are there only to serve themselves and their financial backers’ versions of history and not Louisiana.

This is why I am pleased to report that the Rising Tide conference had 210 paid attendees this year. We growing, people! All of the panels nicely conveyed the mission of Rising Tide, which is to “dispel myths, promote facts, highlight progress and regress, discuss recovery ideas, and promote sound policies at all levels.” (And to party like rockstars, WHAT.) We, the ones who sprang into action during the evacuation of August 2005 and haven’t stopped since and those who read, check and balance us and become information providers themselves, are “the first line of defense against ignorance & forgetting,” to use keynote speaker Mac McClelland’s terminology. Against the pablum and feel-good fed to the world by our news media and government this past weekend and every single day before and after.

More and varied independent news providers are crucial for this to happen. It is not cable news’s place to make up a narrative for me. Even so, it is not my place to do the same thing for someone who cannot rebuild their home five years later, as it is not their place to speak on behalf of someone who drowned when they could not fight the raging floodwaters. As Lolis Elie said, culture and experience are like Carnival. “It depends on where you’re standing and who you’re with.”

There are narratives. There always have been. We are creatures of memory and story. Our work then lies in observing and remembering enough and correctly, and what, whom and how much we are willing to believe before we use that to make vital decisions for ourselves and, more importantly, others. What we accept as the truth versus as fable matters. Being able to weigh the ultimate value of that which we hang onto, so tight that another fact or idea and scrutiny can break us, matters.

It has been five years since Hurricane Katrina, The Flood and the information flood it brought with it. My hope for five years from now is increased information flow, but more than that, that we consider the source and its intent. That we build a more accurate picture, and not a sparklingly precise one. For the future we make comes from what and why we remember.

This blog post from the second segment of my two-week, four-city tour. New Orleans – Colorado – Columbus – Akron – home. America, f*** yeah!

The fifth annual Rising Tide conference was a great success as was the A Howling In The Wires book launch.

There are posts coming on the experiences of moderating the rockstar Treme panel and being in New Orleans for the quasi-solemn, mostly-circus fifth anniversary of The Storm. I could swear Davis Rogan handed me a can of sardines in Louisiana hot sauce and the Surgeon General of the United States flew coach from New Orleans to Atlanta.

Such tales and more coming. Until then, entertain yourselves with this collection of memories from the past weekend. Thank goodness for digital photography.

We’re all here after last night’s pre-party. Hurdle #1 overcome. Kim, Alli and Loki are in fine form. After intros, acknowledgments and ground rules, we are off with the criminal justice panel.

Twitter – The Rising Tide twitter account is @risingtide with tweets from our attendees using the hashtag #rt5. Most of my liveblogging will be livetweeting via @maitri and @backoftown this year. See you on the ‘tubes.

Blogs – Rising Tide Conference Blog

Loki buzzing about onstage

Last night, D and I watched CNN’s New Orleans Rising special on rebuilding in the historically-black Pontchartrain Park neighborhood of New Orleans. So many stories. So many lives. Back in the 1950s and 60s, these black families built their lives and educated their children in the shadow of overt segregation. Cut to the 2000s – the Oubre family’s struggle to stay together, a sad tale of upbeat grandparents who were going to ride out the storm but ultimately drowned in their attics, actor Wendell Pierce’s neighborhood rebuilding effort and the Woods family’s resilience and determination to rebuild.

Black families rebuilding their lives and fighting for their families in the shadow of a segregation that only went to ground and not away. Never away.

That’s what five black New Orleans homeowners discovered this week when a federal judge in Washington ruled that Louisiana’s Road Home Program did indeed give them less money than they’d have received had their houses been destroyed in a white neighborhood — but that he couldn’t do anything about it.

… homes in black neighborhoods aren’t valued as highly as homes in white neighborhoods — and not because the bricks, drywall, flooring and roofing materials used in their construction necessarily cost less. They are often considered of lower value simply because of what they are: homes in a black neighborhood.

Some hurts have subsided, but not really. And other hurts and little triumphs grow over them. That’s the reality of recovery. It’s not simple. In other words, “Is everything normal again in New Orleans?” is a pretty dumb question.

Editor B photographs and writes about two different states of New Orleans today.

So which photograph represents the state of New Orleans today? I think they both do. This remains a city of contrasts. It can be a challenge to keep both these images in mind. We seem to have a natural tendency to reduce and simplify. We want to view things as black or white, positive or negative, with little nuance and few shades of gray. It’s difficult to integrate stark contradictions into a coherent whole.

But that’s exactly what we have to do if we want an accurate picture of where we live.

We’ll be in New Orleans again in just a couple of days. I can’t wait, especially now that the Rising Tide conference schedule has been set in stone. See you there!

8:30am Doors open: Conference check-in with light breakfast
9:30 Opening Remarks
9:45 Crime and Justice Panel moderated by Tulane criminologist Peter Scharf . We are also pleased to announce that New Orleans Police Chief Ronal Serpas has agreed to sit on the panel.
11:00 Keynote address by Mother Jones human rights reporter Mac McClelland
11:45 Break
12:00 “Paradise Lost” environmental panel moderated by Steve Picou
1:00 Lunch
2:00 Politics Panel hosted by Peter Athas
3:00 Break
3:15 “Why Can’t We Get Some Dam Safety in New Orleans?” presentation by Tim Ruppert
3:45 Presentation of the 2010 Ashley Morris Memorial Award
4:00 “Down In the Treme” moderated by Maitri Erwin

It has indeed been almost five years since The Storm.

The fifth annual Rising Tide conference on the recovery and future of New Orleans will take place on Saturday, August 28th at the Howlin Wolf in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mac McClelland, human rights reporter for Mother Jones and bad smartass or is it smart badass, will be keynote speaker. After a day of discussions on politics, crime, the environment and the levees, the conference will end with me moderating a panel on the HBO show Treme. I know, Sweet Baby FSM help us all. Did I mention the bar opens at 9am?

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A Howling In The Wires book launch and reading: It looks like I am going to be published again, but not in a science journal. Consider me equal parts honored and mortified.

Gallatin & Toulouse Press announces the publication of A Howling in the Wires: An Anthology of Writings from Postdiluvian New Orleans. This collection combines the vivid post-Katrina experiences captured by the best New Orleans bloggers with the work of traditional writers from the same period, cataloging some of the best-written and most powerful reactions of the people who experienced Katrina.

The original announcement to the trade is heavy with established writers. Bloggers include Clifton Harris, Ray Shea, Maitri Erwin, Troy Gilbert, Tim Ruppert, Peter Athas, Greg Peters, Sam Jasper, Ashley Morris and others. Cover by Greg Peters. Sam Jasper and Mark Folse, editors with much assistance from Ray Shea. Proceeds from the book will be donated to Hana Morris.

The book launch will be Thursday, August 26th at Mimi’s in the Marigy in New Orleans. Conveniently, that’s two days before Rising Tide.

Update: You can now purchase the book at Amazon.com Alibris.com

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Back Of Town: The Treme blog is on hiatus (sorta) after Season 1, but will be filled with posts during and following the Rising Tide conference. I still have no idea when the second season is set to air, but expect the gang back in full regalia when it does.

Oscar The Cat reacts to this morning's presser.

Hard-hitting journalism: “Did you feel the earthquake, Mr. President?” I am not for Geology PR at all costs, even if deep fault reactivation on the eastern continental margin is hella cool.

BP halts Gulf oil flow for first time since April. Now waiting on test and seal of the dud well and the relief well to capture all flow from the reservoir. Does anyone have a good graphic of the intended relief/capture mechanism?

Gulf’s Artificial Islands Already Failing I was under the impression that engineers had a) thought about the islands’ long-term stability – wrong, and b) figured, “We’re screwed if we do or do not. Why not give it a shot?” Coastal scientist Len Bahr, who is quoted extensively in this article, will be an environmental panelist at the Rising Tide conference in New Orleans this year.

Liveblogging as usual, so keep checking back here for updates.  Also follow the #risingtide and #rt4 hashtags on Twitter.

Wanna know how I feel about sports this week?  Yeah.

Sports panel, hosted by Jeffrey Pants: Alejandro de los Rios, reporter/blogger for the Gambit, Patrick Armstrong of Hurricane Radio, Leo McGovern, editor/publisher of ANTIGRAVITY Magazine, Chris Wiseman (AKA Mr. Clio, AKA Dilly, AKA Lee De Fleur) long-time local blogger, ever-enthusiastic member of the Black and Gold Patrol and locally famous Crescent City Classic participant.

Sports culture in New Orleans: Chris describes being in costume at an away game in Indianapolis.  Sounds like my experience when I wore my beaded cheesehead to the Superdome.  When you’re a Saints (or Packers) fan, it’s all about PURE LOVE.  Jeffrey says the four seasons in NOLA are Mardi Gras, Summer Jazzfest, Hurricane and Football.

As Tim notes, Chris says fans usually celebrate victory, but his outfit memorializes losses: Ashley, Buddy D, Sam Mills.  More about Saints and Hornets fandom.

Again, Jeffrey references Dave Zirin’s remark to Rising Tide two years ago: “Stadium construction is not a substitute for urban policy.”Alejandro de los Rios see plus and minus of public money for Saints and Superdome.  When a hike in Brown County taxes was proposed to renovate and expand Lambeau Field, a minority of residents balked, but they don’t realize what a cash cow the Packer enterprise is for their area. It definitely is a bread-and-circuses model of economic growth, as Pat puts it, but one that makes money for the city and local businesses if properly funneled.  The problem is where the money goes.

I’d really like for development (store fronts, restaurants, bars) around the Superdome to go to businesses that are locally-owned, reflect New Orleans culture and bring growth to Orleans Parish and its taxpayers, and not national chains and ESPNZone or some such.  This is not impossible.

And with that, WE ARE DONE.  Thank you for another great day!  Our baby is FOUR!

Liveblogging as usual, so keep checking back here for updates.  Also follow the #risingtide and #rt4 hashtags on Twitter.

The fourth annual Ashley Morris Award For Excellence In Blogging goes to … American Zombie!  Jacques Morial accepting on behalf of Dambala.

Sinn Fein and Ashe. FYYFF!

Update: Video of Oyster’s introduction and Jacques’s acceptance speech

Liveblogging as usual, so keep checking back here for updates.  Also follow the #risingtide and #rt4 hashtags on Twitter.

You want a citizen journal, you’ve got a citizen journal: Ariella Cohen talks to us about the New Orleans Institute and announces the upcoming Orleans’s own investigative news site: New Orleans Public Record.

Based on The Washington Independent and San Diego Independent News.