RTP-area local music and culture

[-tg <tcgibson AT mindspring.com>]

If someone you know needs a reminder of what
Katrina was/is and what "her" devastation continues
to look like, there's an impressive documentary
(The Storm) available via PBS's Frontline.
A lot of raw footage, a lot of information about FEMA
(most of which was new to me) ...

You can read about it and even watch it online here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/view/

Or, you can buy it here:
http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=2139075&cp&keywords=storm&searchId=10476211695&parentPage=search




Chris Calloway wrote:
> i don't do something like this often, but please
> indulge me because this is from an official friend of
> ours and it's something that bothers me every single
> day like nothing's ever bothered me before.
>
> 3
>
>
> > Subject: [CHEF MENTEUR] Death of an American City?
> > Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:17:41 -0500
> >
> >
> > [...apologies for the non-show related mass
> > emailing, but this story is far more important than
> > some band playing somewhere some night...]
> >
> > The story has dropped off the radar for most people,
> > but New Orleans is not coming back (at least not
> > quickly enough, even if parts of the city now have
> > power and the streets have been cleared) and not
> > getting the vital aid and protection that was
> > promised. Many people who were supportive during the
> > immediate aftermath do not realize what dire shape
> > the city is still in, and that the city's cultural,
> > economic and physical survival depends on people
> > putting pressure on the government to rebuild the
> > levees and help fund an economic and residential
> > comeback. 
> >
> > We can bail out multibillion dollar corporations and
> > third world countries, why not one of our own
> > cities? It is sickening.
> >
> > Meanwhile the uninformed and the right-wing continue
> > to spread lies about New Orleans: that we're
> > spending levee money on Mardi Gras, that the levees
> > failed through no fault of the Army Corps of
> > Engineers, that there is no connection between
> > global warming and hurricanes, that New Orleans is
> > so corrupt that it's impossible to get money
> > directed to effective projects, and the worst lie of
> > all, perhaps, that the city has already come back
> > and doesn't need help as desperately as before.
> >
> > All you have to do is take a drive through the Lower
> > 9th Ward (which is so destroyed, it looks with no
> > exaggeration, like an atomic bomb has dropped on it)
> > and many other devastated areas in New Orleans, and
> > see for yourself a city that continues to lie in
> > ruins, the majority of its population still in
> > exile, shops closing down weeks after trying to
> > revive themselves, the City completely bankrupted by
> > the disaster and able to only make slight gestures
> > at recovery. 
> >
> > Perhaps most disgustingly, New Orleans is being
> > asked to justify its existence by some of the right
> > wing talking heads. As if any city in Texas or
> > California or New York would ever be. Anyone with
> > even part of a heart that has ever spent any time in
> > New Orleans knows why it must be preserved. But
> > others argue to allow a city that is almost an
> > entire historic zone, without question the most
> > interesting and unique city in the country,
> > birthplace of Jazz and one of the most important
> > ports, to simply wither and die. What they resent, I
> > am guessing is not the flood dangers, but the
> > uniqueness and freedom that exists in New Orleans.
> > New Orleans does not conform to the ideological
> > blueprint that the current Administration and
> > Congress have and they see this as an opportunity.
> >
> > Please if you have any civic influence at all--as
> > theoretically as a citizen in a democracy we all
> > do--let your government know that New Orleans needs
> > the help of the entire country before it's too late.
> >
> > mercibeaucoupd'etat,
> > chef menteur
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------
> >
> > "DEATH OF AN AMERICAN CITY"
> > THE NEW YORK TIMES
> > Published: December 11, 2005
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/opinion/11sun1.html
>
> > We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a
> > conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is
> > willing to move back or honest paralysis over
> > difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a
> > major American city will die, leaving nothing but a
> > few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.
> >
> > We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it
> > wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and
> > said, "There is no way to imagine America without
> > New Orleans." But it has been over three months
> > since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in
> > complete shambles.
> >
> > There are many unanswered questions that will take
> > years to work out, but one is make-or-break and
> > needs to be dealt with immediately. It all boils
> > down to the levee system. People will clear garbage,
> > live in tents, work their fingers to the bone to
> > reclaim homes and lives, but not if they don't
> > believe they will be protected by more than patches
> > to the same old system that failed during the deadly
> > storm. Homeowners, businesses and insurance
> > companies all need a commitment before they will
> > stake their futures on the city.
> >
> > At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless
> > ship. There is no effective leadership that we can
> > identify. How many people could even name the
> > president's liaison for the reconstruction effort,
> > Donald Powell? Lawmakers need to understand that for
> > New Orleans the words "pending in Congress" are a
> > death warrant requiring no signature.
> >
> > The rumbling from Washington that the proposed cost
> > of better levees is too much has grown louder.
> > Pretending we are going to do the necessary work
> > eventually, while stalling until the next hurricane
> > season is upon us, is dishonest and cowardly. Unless
> > some clear, quick commitments are made, the
> > displaced will have no choice but to sink roots in
> > the alien communities where they landed.
> >
> > The price tag for protection against a Category 5
> > hurricane, which would involve not just stronger and
> > higher levees but also new drainage canals and
> > environmental restoration, would very likely run to
> > well over $32 billion. That is a lot of money. But
> > that starting point represents just 1.2 percent of
> > this year's estimated $2.6 trillion in federal
> > spending, which actually overstates the case, since
> > the cost would be spread over many years. And it is
> > barely one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax
> > cuts passed just last week by the House of
> > Representatives.
> >
> > Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and
> > Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300
> > billion. All that money has been appropriated as the
> > cost of protecting the nation from terrorist
> > attacks. But what was the worst possible case we
> > fought to prevent?
> > Losing a major American city.
> >
> > "We'll not just rebuild, we'll build higher and
> > better," President Bush said that night in
> > September. Our feeling, strongly, is that he was
> > right and should keep to his word. We in New York
> > remember well what it was like for the country to
> > rally around our city in a desperate hour. New York
> > survived and has flourished. New Orleans can too.
> >
> > Of course, New Orleans's local and state officials
> > must do their part as well, and demonstrate the
> > political and practical will to rebuild the city
> > efficiently and responsibly. They must, as quickly
> > as possible, produce a comprehensive plan for
> > putting New Orleans back together. Which schools
> > will be rebuilt and which will be absorbed? Which
> > neighborhoods will be shored up? Where will the
> > roads go? What about electricity and water lines? So
> > far, local and state officials have been derelict at
> > producing anything that comes close to a coherent
> > plan. That is unacceptable.
> >
> > The city must rise to the occasion. But it will not
> > have that opportunity without the levees, and only
> > the office of the president is strong enough to goad
> > Congress to take swift action. Only his voice is
> > loud enough to call people home and convince them
> > that commitments will be met.
> >
> > Maybe America does not want to rebuild New Orleans.
> > Maybe we have decided that the deficits are too
> > large and the money too scarce, and that it is
> > better just to look the other way until the city
> > withers and disappears. If that is truly the case,
> > then it is incumbent on President Bush and Congress
> > to admit it, and organize a real plan to help the
> > dislocated residents resettle into new homes. The
> > communities that opened their hearts to the Katrina
> > refugees need to know that their short-term act of
> > charity has turned into a permanent commitment.
> >
> > If the rest of the nation has decided it is too
> > expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance
> > at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell
> > them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly
> > stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts
> > for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell
> > them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild
> > one of its great cities.
> >
> > Our nation would then look like a feeble giant
> > indeed. But whether we admit it or not, this is our
> > choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives
> > or dies.
> > -----------
>
>
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