September 26, 2006
The Big Cheesy
New Orleans – U2 performed last night before a football game between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons, which would be no big deal but for the fact that the game was played in the New Orleans Superdome just 13 months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast killing at least 1,836 people and
leaving more than 700 still unaccounted for.
I, for one, was relieved to know that the Superdome is open for business. If New Orleans can’t do anything else, at least it can host sensationalizing media hordes to tout the resurrection of a building that was the site of this country’s most egregious travesty since Japanese internment. People, listen up. I don’t like to preach, but if you found yourself all teary eyed with optimism and swollen with faith in the human spirit because 106 millionaire athletes played a game in a city that still hasn’t removed the wreckage from a disaster that everybody saw coming, grow up.
My question to the National Broadcasting Company is this: How much of the tens of millions of advertising dollars that you made from last night’s charade got donated to the poor families in the Lower Ninth Ward, most of whom remain displaced, mostly in Houston, and whose insurance carriers still refuse to pay out equitable settlements? My question to Mayor C. Ray Nagin is this: How come you can get the Superdome open in time for football season but you can’t come up with a plan to stop land bankers and carpet baggers from buying up sections of town at deflated prices so they can build a playground for the rich and famous at the expense of the impoverished and disenfranchised? My question to Bono is this: Who the fuck do you think you are, you self-promoting Irish git?
There are still people in New Orleans waiting for FEMA trailers. There are still levees in New Orleans that have not even been brought up to pre-Katrina standards. There are still neighborhoods in New Orleans without water and power. There are still shells of homes in New Orleans that have not been re-entered since last August. There are still streets in New Orleans that are completely unoccupied. But thank God the Superdome is open.
The Superdome repairs cost a total of $185 million, some $114 million of which was
paid for by FEMA. When I shared this fact with my sister she asked me how a sports stadium qualified to receive federal disaster relief. I don’t know, Amy. My congressman didn’t call to ask my opinion on the matter.
The Superdome repairs included the largest re-roofing project in American history. When I shared this fact with my mother she asked me why somebody couldn’t apply the same labor and ingenuity to upgrading the levee system that proved so woefully inadequate. I don’t know, Mother. I’m not with the Army Corps of Engineers. If I were, I would probably be Court Martialed.
The Superdome repairs were finished seven weeks ahead of schedule. When I shared this fact with my friend Mickey he asked me why the same government that can’t pass a bill in time to make a difference can knuckle down and get a football team back home seven weeks early. I don’t know, Mickey. What do you think?
Now I like football as much as the next man, but against the backdrop of the unfinished work in the Crescent City, I have to say that somebody has got their priorities upside down. I wonder what the evacuees whose hotel rooms are no longer federally subsidized thought as they huddled together around a television in a family shelter watching their Saints go marching in. I wonder what the players themselves thought about playing to a packed house on the site where old and infirmed people died during a four-day ordeal that nobody did anything to avoid. I wonder what the unemployed men and women scattered around the city thought about the enthusiastic throng who paid $140 apiece for sideline seats to celebrate a lie?
Anyhow, the game got played, and to put a finish to this story, it’s worth reporting that the Saints won, handily, by 20 points to be exact. There will be lots of people who consider that win a victory for the city. I and the 1.2 million displaced New Orleanians, most of whom watched the game, might not feel the same.
The Big Cheesy
New Orleans – U2 performed last night before a football game between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons, which would be no big deal but for the fact that the game was played in the New Orleans Superdome just 13 months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast killing at least 1,836 people and
leaving more than 700 still unaccounted for.I, for one, was relieved to know that the Superdome is open for business. If New Orleans can’t do anything else, at least it can host sensationalizing media hordes to tout the resurrection of a building that was the site of this country’s most egregious travesty since Japanese internment. People, listen up. I don’t like to preach, but if you found yourself all teary eyed with optimism and swollen with faith in the human spirit because 106 millionaire athletes played a game in a city that still hasn’t removed the wreckage from a disaster that everybody saw coming, grow up.
My question to the National Broadcasting Company is this: How much of the tens of millions of advertising dollars that you made from last night’s charade got donated to the poor families in the Lower Ninth Ward, most of whom remain displaced, mostly in Houston, and whose insurance carriers still refuse to pay out equitable settlements? My question to Mayor C. Ray Nagin is this: How come you can get the Superdome open in time for football season but you can’t come up with a plan to stop land bankers and carpet baggers from buying up sections of town at deflated prices so they can build a playground for the rich and famous at the expense of the impoverished and disenfranchised? My question to Bono is this: Who the fuck do you think you are, you self-promoting Irish git?
There are still people in New Orleans waiting for FEMA trailers. There are still levees in New Orleans that have not even been brought up to pre-Katrina standards. There are still neighborhoods in New Orleans without water and power. There are still shells of homes in New Orleans that have not been re-entered since last August. There are still streets in New Orleans that are completely unoccupied. But thank God the Superdome is open.
The Superdome repairs cost a total of $185 million, some $114 million of which was
paid for by FEMA. When I shared this fact with my sister she asked me how a sports stadium qualified to receive federal disaster relief. I don’t know, Amy. My congressman didn’t call to ask my opinion on the matter.The Superdome repairs included the largest re-roofing project in American history. When I shared this fact with my mother she asked me why somebody couldn’t apply the same labor and ingenuity to upgrading the levee system that proved so woefully inadequate. I don’t know, Mother. I’m not with the Army Corps of Engineers. If I were, I would probably be Court Martialed.
The Superdome repairs were finished seven weeks ahead of schedule. When I shared this fact with my friend Mickey he asked me why the same government that can’t pass a bill in time to make a difference can knuckle down and get a football team back home seven weeks early. I don’t know, Mickey. What do you think?
Now I like football as much as the next man, but against the backdrop of the unfinished work in the Crescent City, I have to say that somebody has got their priorities upside down. I wonder what the evacuees whose hotel rooms are no longer federally subsidized thought as they huddled together around a television in a family shelter watching their Saints go marching in. I wonder what the players themselves thought about playing to a packed house on the site where old and infirmed people died during a four-day ordeal that nobody did anything to avoid. I wonder what the unemployed men and women scattered around the city thought about the enthusiastic throng who paid $140 apiece for sideline seats to celebrate a lie?
Anyhow, the game got played, and to put a finish to this story, it’s worth reporting that the Saints won, handily, by 20 points to be exact. There will be lots of people who consider that win a victory for the city. I and the 1.2 million displaced New Orleanians, most of whom watched the game, might not feel the same.
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