{"id":5283,"date":"2015-08-24T19:35:56","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T19:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=5283"},"modified":"2015-08-24T19:35:56","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T19:35:56","slug":"new-orleans-ten-years-after-part-two-thank-you-george-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2015\/08\/24\/new-orleans-ten-years-after-part-two-thank-you-george-w\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans, Ten Years Past The Flood: Resilience Follies, Part 1 (Thank You, George W.)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"get-attachment-18.aspx_-640x480-640x480\"<\/a>
photo: Larry Blumenfeld<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nOn the plane to New Orleans yesterday, I spotted former New York Times reporter Gary Rivlin, whose book, “Katrina: After the Flood,” I’d just begun working my way through. I took a break from that to read a Sunday New York Times Magazine piece<\/a> Rivlin adapted from his book, which focused on Alden J. McDonald Jr., president and chief executive of Liberty Bank and Trust Company, one of the Deep South\u2019s first black-owned banks.
\nRivlin\u2019s story ends like this:<\/p>\n

While much of New Orleans thrived, McDonald said he saw little hope of a better future for many of his customers. \u2018\u2018The poor will stay poor and the middle class can never get ahead,\u2019\u2019 he said, revealing a rare flash of anger. He paused and added a phrase I don\u2019t imagine he has used many times in his life: \u2018\u2018And I don\u2019t have the solution.\u2019\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nLater that day, I attended a reception in honor\u00a0of Rivlin\u2019s book at\u00a0Le Mus\u00e9e de f.p.c.<\/em>, a wonderful house museum in a\u00a0a Greek Revival residence on Esplanade Avenue.\u00a0The museum’s website decribes the place this way:<\/p>\n

“…. opens a door to a brilliant yet hidden history of people whose stories had largely been confined to archival boxes, out-of-print books, yellowing musical scores and the headstones in the city\u2019s historic cemeteries. Locked by law into a marginal existence between slavery and freedom, free people of color were anomalies in a caste society rooted in Black and White, master and enslaved. Still, their undeniable achievements and vibrant culture serve to rewrite the conventional narrative of the history of New Orleans.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At Rivlin’s book party, Alden McDonald had to choke back tears when he spoke of ten years ago, “when there were forces in this city bent on keeping certain people\u2014African American people\u2014from coming back.” He cautioned those who would be too self-congratulatory this week or who have grown “Katrina-weary” because of the need to recognize\u00a0\u201cthose have not recovered or are not back at all.\u201d
\nThis morning, I attended \u201cNew Orleans: Ten Years Later,\u201d a day\u2019s worth of panels presented by The Atlantic (archived here<\/a>).
\nAt an opening discussion, \u201cWhat Does It Mean to Know New Orleans?\u201d:
\nMadeleine LeCesne, a 19-year-old Princeton-bound New Orleans resident, who had earlier recited an original poem, said this:<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing New Orleans, when you\u2019re born into it is kind of like loving a dog, as much as you love it. Part of you deep down, as much as you fight it, knows you\u2019d be happy w any other animal. Then you take your first trip. I\u2019ll never forget trip to Nashville. Never have to look for cracks and potholes. Waking on the sidewalk. You come back and that love changes. You start to love the city like you would a grandparent. You can\u2019t comprehend why the city is so messed up \u2013 so old, so damaged. You don\u2019t imagine losing it, just like you can\u2019t think about losing your grandparents. Then something like Katrina happens. And you start to love the city like a parent. And then you worry\u2014that fear, and that anxiety. Like when your parents don\u2019t come home; they stay out a little later than they had said. It\u2019s like that. And you can\u2019t get past it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tracie Washington, president and CEO of The Louisiana Justice Center, pointed out:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lost 100,000 black folks in this city. That means we\u2019ve lost a significant part of what New Orleans is.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lolis Eric Elie, a former New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist and co-producer of the documentary \u201cFaubourg Trem\u00e9: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans,\u201d said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our measures of progress are based on how quickly rich people are getting richer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet the most remarkable thing I heard came during a public interview conducted by the Atlantic\u2019s Jeffrey Goldberg, with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
\nAfter Landrieu pointed out the importance of visits from Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton (scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, respectively), Goldberg asked about the idea to invite Bush. \u201cThat was my idea,\u201d Landrieu explained, and then went on to say this about Bush\u2019s visit:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026I just think it’s really important for us to be grateful, to be thoughtful, to treat the president with dignity and respect, because he was our commander-in-chief at the time\u2014and to say thank you to him.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thank you?!<\/strong><\/em>
\nDon\u2019t believe me?
\nYou can find that moment here<\/a>.
\n 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the plane to New Orleans yesterday, I spotted former New York Times reporter Gary Rivlin, whose book, “Katrina: After the Flood,” I’d just begun working my way through. I took a break from that to read a Sunday New York Times Magazine piece Rivlin adapted from his book, which focused on Alden J. McDonald … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “New Orleans, Ten Years Past The Flood: Resilience Follies, Part 1 (Thank You, George W.)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[25,11,311,312,313,314,14,315,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5283"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}