We spoke last night of this anniversary, not quite knowing when it was, knowing it was imminent. With the new storm heading back to that area…we can all watch and hope and pray.
There are two specific moments in the last 8 years that I remember with clarity.
The first one was sitting at the bar, Ex-Him on one side, my friend Lynn on the other, watching as our president declared us at war. Tears rolled down my face one by one as I watched. I watched and thought to myself how things would never be the same. We were living in a time where one couldn’t speak out against, or they would be labeled traitor and unpatriotic. I watched the other people around me cheer and clap and lift their glasses to “kicking ass” and I knew…I knew in my little uninformed, politically uneducated heart that this was wrong. And I cried.
The second was Katrina. Watching the impending storm on every channel, watching the people stand in line to get into the dome, then the aftermath. Days. Heat. Floods. Death. All ignored. And I cried. I became obsessed. If the tv was on, it was on coverage and I was watching it. For my measly part, I organized a fund raiser at the bar and we donated 2000 dollars to Habitat and Red Cross. That night will forever go down as the one that almost killed us all! Our little bar with a “legal capacity” of 85 people had well over 250-300 at one time. Inside. On the patio. Gah. I can still feel it actually….GAH!
It’s been 3 years today since it hit. 3 years of relocation and repair and reconstruction. 3 years of white trailers and talk of levees. 3 years of people coming together and rebuilding. With Gustav on it’s way, I feel like we’ve all joined hands and are crying Red Rover Red Rover…here’s hoping the coast is holding hands with Toni Jo Brown…that bitch was so big NUTHIN but nuthin got through!
Now, on this anniversary more than any we all need to stand side by side. We need to remember the atrocity and the horror. We need to wrap our hands around each others wrists and make a blockade. We who are ready to face the future with strength and cry “Not one more time!”
Red Rover Red Rover send Johnny right over.
Misti Ridiculous 
Ode to Toni Joe! I haven’t thought of that woman in years but yes! She can hold back the Titan and make him want his Mother. Good writing my dear. Heart and soul on the page… committed to being different, changing, moving forward one day at a time Sweet Jesus. All my love.
LikeLike
Hurricane Katrina hit during an already disastrous time in my family. The rage and devastation that storm brought in seemed symbolic of the rage and devastation in us at that time. Not that I’m saying that I wished it or it was deserved. It was just another thing to add to the list of what made 2005 the Year of Shit. As fucked up as the Bush Administration is, I still can’t believe how they let it go so horribly wrong. I remember watching TV and looking for places I had visited and loved (New Orleans was my Dad’s favorite vacation destination…knew it well), knowing they were gone. Memories of shacks where we’d eaten the best fried oysters washing over me. All gone.
LikeLike