Not dead yet

[redbird]

Yes, I'm worried about Hurricane Katrina and what it may do to New Orleans, but it's discouraging and odd to be reading all these posts that seem to be coming from a future in which the city is completely gone.

Cities can recover from a lot, but it helps to believe in them.

Comments

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

But that belief doesn't matter right now; it matters afterwards. And the belief of the people wringing their hands from far away matters less than the belief of the people being evacuated right now and hence are not online.

I lived in San Francisco, and before that in Chicago; I am more than passing familiar with cities that recover from major disasters, and the vision and tenacity that contributed to their recovery. I was with Vicki up until her last sentence. It's not belief we need now. Belief is irrelevant right now. Belief can wait.

[brooksmoses]

So, equally, can belief in the city's destruction wait.

In the meantime, what we believe now will color how we interpret the facts to come, and what we believe about their import in the future.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Yes, all the hand-wringing and chin-bucking can equally wait.

In the meantime, I will let the people whose future is directly affected by Hurrican Katrina have the stage.

[redbird]

None of the comments I was reacting to were from New Orleans, or other Gulf Coast, residents talking about their situation. They were random "Goodbye New Orleans" and similar from people who wish they'd had the chance to visit, or fear they won't get to visit again.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I was aware of this, and I did not mean to imply they were.