Miscellaneous Friday afternoon ramblings/Post Katrina rant
Current mood:
working
So it's Friday afternoon and I'm still at the office. Since we're a small but successful company, everyone does a shit-ton of work normally. When 2 people are out all day, that just means more work for everyone else. Then, one of the boss' mother died, so he was out all day, one of the warehouse guys is sick and therefore useless, and the other wants to leave early to go hunting. So outof a 7 person business, we're down to me and a sick forklift rat. I promptly sent him home early. Can't afford to get sick. Still trying to get the wife and son healthy.
Gotten a positive response to all of the new pictures on my profile. What started out as a profile for my Saturday night gig as a sound engineer has turned into more of a regular, personal thing. I guess that's not a bad thing. Plus, as one can tell, I adore my son. I hate to make up another site...one for sound and one for personal. What does the world think I should do?
Since I'm still new to this whole MySpace thing, forgive me if my manners aren't what they should be. I'm a fast study...I promise I'll get it sooner or later.
So, as many of my friends know, I'm a politics junky. Mom was a lobbiest (spell check please) for years during my youth, so I was practically reared in the capitol building. I made my mom cry when I registered republican. My poor liberal mother gave birth to a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. Too bad for her, but I like to think for myself. But I digress...since Katrina and Rita came through and turned Louisiana and Mississippi into a Mongolian Cluster Fuck, politics as usual in this state have gone from bad to worse. I can sit here and complain, but I won't get into details. The long and the short of it is...if Louisiana doesn't get its collective head out of its collective ass, we are going down faster than a $2 whore on a corn dog. Not even Superman can save us from ourselves...although there's not much he could do from a wheelchair anyway.
For the first time in my life, I have found myself wishing that LA politicos would be more like their counterparts in MS. Not that there's anything wrong with Mississippi...my mom was raised there in a house that is not there any more right off the beach in Waveland. My family had a summer home there for over 100 years. Notice I say had...like a fart in a strong wind, it ain't dere no more. But I digress...the folks in MS have gathered around each other and pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, and started to rebuild. The fuckwads in charge here are too busy pointing fingers, mugging for air time, or jockying for position for pictures in the paper. Meanwhile 70f the population is homeless or displaced, waiting for answers to questions that no one wants to take on. The few people around with enough sense (ie-Sugar Ray Nagin) get their ideas shot down. Rather than come up with their own ideas, people just want to sit back and criticize hizzonner's ideas. SHIT! You don't like his plan, FINE! Come up with something better! We have a saying around this business...don't bring me problems without bringing solutions. Maybe the guv'ment should be run more like a business than a government.
Now that I've railed on that topic, what's the deal with the people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas bitching and moaning?? Seems like an awful lot of people are sitting around waiting for handouts while a few others are trying to rebuild without assistance. I personally know too many people who are milking the FEMA vacation teet for as long as possible and pissing and moaning about how it's unfair that they flooded. My grandfather who had a 4th grade education told me when I was young...if anyone tells you life is fair, they are trying to sell you something. Yeah, it's unfortunate that 80f the city flooded, but not unfair. I got lucky. My house did well. My in-laws had 9 feet for 4 weeks. They aren't waiting for handouts or lawsuits...they're working like dogs every day trying to make a bad situation good again. They are upset, but they don't cry foul. They cry, but at the same time, it's a re-birth for them. Handouts are great, but handouts don't build cities.
Bush the younger finally got off his duff and promised a couple of billion to repair and build up the levees. Almost too little too late, but we'll take what we can get. New Orleans gets in your blood. It's the ONLY city in the world that you can HATE with a passion, and at the same time LOVE with all your heart, and still live there and accept all that goes on. We have a word for everything in South Louisiana. It's a way of life. Different than any other place in the world. I have travelled all over the globe. There are great cities in great countries, but NONE are like NOLA. We're different here. Not better, just different. Maybe worse, just different.
Shit...time to go home. I feel better now. Got a long weekend of work to do. Anyone in the Fat City area Saturday night feel free to drop by The Bar. We'll be rocking, I'm sure.
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