Over a load of good cheese last night, Machelle and I talked of the fatigue and absence of coordination experienced by the hard-working local rebuilders of this city. Folks here are simply tired and lack the motivation to get together and arm themselves with scythes and pitchforks with the intention to collectively demand change of elected city, state and national officials.
One of the four top works of classical Chinese literature is Outlaws Of The Marsh, appropriately-named for our purposes. In ancient China, “the rulers’ legitimacy is based on morality. Therefore, resistance against unrighteous ruling is justifiable. Peasant uprisings would either become a means to a change of regime or surrender to the rulers.”
Sure, a number of these mutinies were doomed, but at least they tried. Besides, this is the modern-day United States. What are they going to do now? Off with our heads? Oh, wait … sssshhh.
This is not a desultory expression of outrage. While it desparately needs protection from the assured recurrence of the hurricane-flood combo, our area hasn’t come back from the first big punch. The journey isn’t over. Summer. Sweltering heat and humidity. Unannounced rain. Roach and mosquito season. Mold bloom. On returning to New Orleans to help rebuild their lives and communities, where and how are people expected to live? The Katrina death toll is as yet incomplete – our people continue to die of improper health care, unacceptable living conditions and the accompanying trauma, stress and depression.
The government cannot deliver promised FEMA trailers, utility companies are disorganized and tardy, and abandoned homes are not going to be bulldozed until August 29th. And Chris Matthews wants us to play Hardball with the nation? Our government, sir, promised us anything to help us rebuild. Please don’t ask us to justify ourselves when we are taxpaying Americans and we are the ones still on hold.
As I just said at Metroblogging New Orleans, we are incredibly collaborative, synchronous and disciplined in our music. Why, oh why, can we not apply this innate ability to come together, raise our voices in unison and save our own? Peace, love, the blues and jambalaya are but temporary in the face of reality.
The conversation turned to cultural notions of success – why are some cultures overall more apt to make it? After talk of my ultra-disciplined female Indian ancestors and her energized Eastern European ones, Machelle mentioned Freakonomics and one of the thrusts of the book – motivated and successful people come from motivated and successful mothers. Exceptions to the rule exist, but I buy that theory. [For the most part – Machelle and I are bums compared to our moms.]
Which caused me to think of the economic depression experienced by this city for decades now. Would New Orleans be a business hotspot, would we be as badly off, would we be more valid in the eyes of America had we simply created and encouraged motivated parents everywhere in the city?
The discussion ended with the acknowledgment that there are no simple answers. For New Orleans or for the topic of nurture. The best ideas, enacted in unison, may eventually lead to our destruction. Even the best mothering, schools and socioeconomic conditions have created miscreants and misanthropes who contribute nothing to their society. It’s just something else to think about in building a new road back to home.
So, I ask you: Is the road to heaven paved with bad intentions? *smile*
