Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? - An Editorial by Anne Rice

[pt_tangles]

This found its way into my inbox ... it is beautifully written, and I think it expresses a great sense of loss in a way that all of the gruesome news footage really can't.

WHAT do people really know about New Orleans?

Do they take away with them an awareness that it has always been not only a great white metropolis but also a great black city, a city where African-Americans have come together again and again to form the strongest African-American culture in the land?

The first literary magazine ever published in Louisiana was the work of black men, French-speaking poets and writers who brought together their work in three issues of a little book called L'Album Littéraire. That was in the 1840's, and by that time the city had a prosperous class of free black artisans, sculptors, businessmen, property owners, skilled laborers in all fields. Thousands of slaves lived on their own in the city, too, making a living at various jobs, and sending home a few dollars to their owners in the country at the end of the month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rice.html

--Phae

Comments

[willowfae.livejournal.com]

It's good to hear Anne Rice talk about what is going on.

[pt_tangles]

I think so too.

--Phae

[blackthornglade.livejournal.com]

I disagree with her, actually, on one point. She blasts "her country" as having let them down. That's a pretty broad brush to tar a lot of people with who *are* helping. A better target for her would have been "my government".

[pt_tangles]

That's a good point; though, when I was reading it, I assumed that she was refering to the gov't, not the people.

--Phae