verbicide | never to be forgotten

My friend,

leighdb, went home to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, and here is her marvelous, 3-part series about the experience. The first two parts are about reuniting with family and friends and lots and lots of liquor. She's an amazing writer, and her stories and pictures will crack you up and make you smile. The last page turns serious, and with her permission, I'd like to share it with ya'll. I somehow missed this post when it first came out (which is why I'm just linking to it now), despite-I-swear, watching for it like a hawk, but I just found out from Leigh where it was, and you simply must go read it. Go!

Look. Here is a city - an American city, one of our own - that is unique in the world. It has brought us all, whether we've ever been there or not, sweet music and delicious food and culture and heritage and history and beauty and joy. And it needs your help.

It does not deserve to die. It does not deserve to be forgotten. If we allow New Orleans to fester and fade, what does that say about us? Is that what we want to be written in history - that a storm is stronger than the whole of America? That we just couldn't be bothered to save one of our oldest and most distinctive cities? Is that how far we have fallen?

I'm out of travel money for this year, but I really hope to head out to New Orleans next year and give them my support and money as I promised I would in the horrific aftermath of Katrina.

Part I.