Oh, the recovery. Americorps teams from Denver had their spring break over Easter weekend, and let me just say that it was QUITE good. We stayed in a hotel directly across from the famous New Orleans Convention Center and just enjoyed the weekend...in many different ways. :-D
I have found my Xanadu, and it is known as Bourbon Street. For those who are unfamilar with New Orleans, let me attempt to describe it to you.
Imagine the best college party you've ever been to. Subtract the ever-present douchebag meatheads and the horse-piss beer, and replace them with happy drunk tourists, Hurricanes and Hand Grenades (both of them are highly potent drinks designed to get the consumer quite inebriated). Swap the crappy rap music on a stereo with awesome LIVE blues, jazz, and rock in one of the many bars and clubs. Trade amateur beer pong for cute girls 'showing off' for beads. Add a couple hokey little shops selling fun tourist shit, and a smattering of strip clubs and sex shops. Sound like a good party?
Now make it seven blocks long.
Alcohol and debauchery are not the only things to see and do in New Orleans, however. The historic French Quarter also boasts some of the coolest music clubs in the world, an antiques shop specializing in old weaponry, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, fucking awesome French donuts known as beignets, and, last Saturday, the Guiness World Record for Largest Oyster Po-Boy.
Let me explain this as well. A po-boy is a well-known New Orleans specialty. It is essentially a hoagie, but constructed with chewy French bread. The most famous variety is made with fried oysters, but shrimp and pretty much any other sandwich ingredients will work. So on this particular Saturday afternoon, I wandered into the French Quarter and, much to my surprise, I came across a HUGE fucking sandwich on Bourbon Street. Made up of quite a few loaves of French bread, this sandwich stretched roughly two blocks. Each of the seafood restaurants in the area had nine or so feet of the po-boy with which to work, and they prepared their fried oysters in their own individual way. The oysters were added, the pictures were taken, the record was set...and then they cut it up and distributed it to the many people who had come to watch. I am pleased to announce that I snaked a piece...and it was amazing.
In the athletic realm, a big old 'fuck you' to the Pitt basketball team for taking a knee against a mediocre team that, by all rights, they should have crushed. Not only did it screw up my bracket, it dashed my hopes. At least fucking Duke lost...bah.
27 March 2008
19 March 2008
Five Years Gone
Five years ago today, the United States officially launched its invasion of Iraq. As of the time I write this post, 3992 American soldiers have been killed, as have 175 British troops and 133 soldiers of the other nations involved in the coalition. Many more innocent Iraqi civilians have lost their lives for no other reason than the branch of Islam that they follow, or even worse...for no other reason than their presence in the wrong place at the wrong time.
By a purely material count, the American taxpayers (people like you and me) have financed this war to the tune of $500 billion ($500,000,000,000). It is estimated that when all is said and done, with veterans' healthcare and withdrawal costs factored in, the Iraq war will have cost the United States more than $4 TRILLION.
I do not want this to be construed as an attack on our troops in any way, as some would have you believe. American soldiers have served our country with the kind of bravery and honor that have become legendary, and I have the utmost respect for each and every one. I have friends in several branches of the Armed Services, and I will welcome an argument with anybody who denigrates them or the job they do. It is the mission itself that I criticize, and those that sent them to complete it. It was poorly envisioned, poorly planned, and poorly managed, and we are paying for it in American lives.
Why are our men still there? What are they enduring snipers and bombings for? What are they dying for? It has been well-documented that there were no chemical or biological weapons in Iraq before our invasion, and Saddam Hussein and his regime have been overthrown. It is said that we are there to preserve the freedom and security of the Iraqi people, and as noble a goal as that is, that is not the job for the United States military. Stability in Iraq will not be restored until Iraqi police and military forces take over for our troops.
The Iraqi Defense Force might not have reached the same level of readiness and skill that the United States Marine Corps has, but the time has come to allow them to do their jobs. At the moment, they are viewed by the Iraqi people as nothing more than our puppets, a perception not dispelled by the sight of American troops backing them up. We have built the foundations of democracy and security in Iraq, but our continued presence is beginning to undermine it. It is time that we allow the Iraqi people to stand on their own feet and restore their nation.
By a purely material count, the American taxpayers (people like you and me) have financed this war to the tune of $500 billion ($500,000,000,000). It is estimated that when all is said and done, with veterans' healthcare and withdrawal costs factored in, the Iraq war will have cost the United States more than $4 TRILLION.
I do not want this to be construed as an attack on our troops in any way, as some would have you believe. American soldiers have served our country with the kind of bravery and honor that have become legendary, and I have the utmost respect for each and every one. I have friends in several branches of the Armed Services, and I will welcome an argument with anybody who denigrates them or the job they do. It is the mission itself that I criticize, and those that sent them to complete it. It was poorly envisioned, poorly planned, and poorly managed, and we are paying for it in American lives.
Why are our men still there? What are they enduring snipers and bombings for? What are they dying for? It has been well-documented that there were no chemical or biological weapons in Iraq before our invasion, and Saddam Hussein and his regime have been overthrown. It is said that we are there to preserve the freedom and security of the Iraqi people, and as noble a goal as that is, that is not the job for the United States military. Stability in Iraq will not be restored until Iraqi police and military forces take over for our troops.
The Iraqi Defense Force might not have reached the same level of readiness and skill that the United States Marine Corps has, but the time has come to allow them to do their jobs. At the moment, they are viewed by the Iraqi people as nothing more than our puppets, a perception not dispelled by the sight of American troops backing them up. We have built the foundations of democracy and security in Iraq, but our continued presence is beginning to undermine it. It is time that we allow the Iraqi people to stand on their own feet and restore their nation.
16 March 2008
One Small Step For Pitt
Congratulations Pitt, 2008 Big East Champions.
Now comes the real test. 65 teams, one bracket. The conference championship was a big win, especially over a fearsome Georgetown team, but it's the Tournament that matters.
HAIL TO PITT
Now comes the real test. 65 teams, one bracket. The conference championship was a big win, especially over a fearsome Georgetown team, but it's the Tournament that matters.
HAIL TO PITT
14 March 2008
Oh, You Crazy ACC Kids
If you ever want to see something funny, get a bunch of college kids from Duke and a bunch more from North Carolina together around March. Apparently both schools are on break at the moment, and both have sent contingents of students down to Camp Hope. This is all well and good. However, it is March. We are in the midst of college basketball season; conference tournaments are going on as we speak, and the NCAA Tournament is not far away (For those of you who don't follow basketball, the rivalry between Duke and UNC can be equated with Hatfield vs McCoy, Montague vs Capulet, Yankees vs Red Sox...these two schools HATE everything about each other). So for somebody like me (a Pitt fan with a considerable amount of antipathy for both) it is quite amusing to witness the hateful glares and occasional calls of 'UNC sucks' and 'Fuck Duke' that are inevitable whenever groups of their students pass each other. Shame that they'll be gone when the tournament proper begins; that would be very entertaining.
While I'm on the topic, Pitt is still alive and well in the Big East. Despite their general dominance in inter-conference play (including a brilliant last-second comeback win over Duke a couple months ago), Pitt has an infuriating tendency to choke and lose to mediocre Big East teams, especially at home. With any luck, we'll be able to make a good showing in the Big East tourney, maybe even mount a run against Georgetown. But seriously tho, Pitt...please don't fuck it up.
While I'm on the topic, Pitt is still alive and well in the Big East. Despite their general dominance in inter-conference play (including a brilliant last-second comeback win over Duke a couple months ago), Pitt has an infuriating tendency to choke and lose to mediocre Big East teams, especially at home. With any luck, we'll be able to make a good showing in the Big East tourney, maybe even mount a run against Georgetown. But seriously tho, Pitt...please don't fuck it up.
12 March 2008
The Alternative
There are few things as misleading as a raw oyster. For those who haven't had the pleasure of sampling these underwater delicacies, be warned. They look disgusting, like a...giant gray loogie, really. They FEEL disgusting; cold and slimy. However, do not let this put you off. These things taste absolutely amazing. It is difficult to describe how good they taste, other than to say that I highly recommend them.
Anyway. Disappointing news over the last several days as Congressman Ron Paul has announced his intention to begin 'winding down' his presidential campaign. Not that we really expected a dark-horse victory from a libertarian-leaning candidate, but Paul's approaching withdrawal is symbolic of what I consider to be the most worrying trend in American politics: the Republican party's rejection of true conservatism. Rather, they have embraced big-government neo-conservatism that kowtows to the religious right and flouts the Constitution.
Is it any wonder that the eventual Democratic candidate, be it Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, already has a significant advantage over John McCain? I mean, for Christ's sake, this is a guy who says that he would stay in Iraq for the next hundred years. The problem is that the average person thinks that people like McCain and Mitt Romney, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are conservatives. It really does give us a bad name.
But that was the whole point of the Ron Paul Revolution. It was the best way to get the word out: there are still many people out there that believe in the Constitution as it was written, the free market as it was intended, and the individual rights of each person. It is unlikely that Congressman Paul will mount a third-party run as many of his supporters have hoped, but even so, the point remains that people do not necessarily have to, as Leo McGarry once so brilliantly put it, "...vote for the lesser of who-cares."
Anyway. Disappointing news over the last several days as Congressman Ron Paul has announced his intention to begin 'winding down' his presidential campaign. Not that we really expected a dark-horse victory from a libertarian-leaning candidate, but Paul's approaching withdrawal is symbolic of what I consider to be the most worrying trend in American politics: the Republican party's rejection of true conservatism. Rather, they have embraced big-government neo-conservatism that kowtows to the religious right and flouts the Constitution.
Is it any wonder that the eventual Democratic candidate, be it Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, already has a significant advantage over John McCain? I mean, for Christ's sake, this is a guy who says that he would stay in Iraq for the next hundred years. The problem is that the average person thinks that people like McCain and Mitt Romney, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are conservatives. It really does give us a bad name.
But that was the whole point of the Ron Paul Revolution. It was the best way to get the word out: there are still many people out there that believe in the Constitution as it was written, the free market as it was intended, and the individual rights of each person. It is unlikely that Congressman Paul will mount a third-party run as many of his supporters have hoped, but even so, the point remains that people do not necessarily have to, as Leo McGarry once so brilliantly put it, "...vote for the lesser of who-cares."
06 March 2008
Getting Things Done?
Camp Hope
New Orleans, LA
(A brief note before I get into weighty matters. Brett Favre retired the other day, ending a long and brilliant career. He owns just about every passing record in the books, but it is not simply his statistics that make him among the greatest to ever play football. The essence of Brett Favre's brilliance was in his sheer love for the game, his unparalleled toughness, and his ability to improvise. I remember a game in which he took a brutal sack that sent him to the sidelines. The announcers guessed that he would be out for the rest of the game. Two plays later, on fourth-and-fifteen, Favre went back into the game while the team doctor had his back turned. He waved the backup quarterback off, took the snap...and proceeded to throw a 35-yard touchdown pass. Farewell Brett, you will be missed.)
Now for the serious. Yesterday afternoon, after three days in the van, we arrived in New Orleans. We drove through the city on our way to Camp Hope (the volunteer camp where we are staying) and at first, it appears that the city was on its way to recovery. Downtown was certainly thriving, the Superdome showed none of the trauma that it and the people inside had endured, and the billboards and people were out in full force.
Then we headed out of the city. We soon found ourselves in the Upper Ninth Ward, where floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina had reached almost five feet. I was really surprised by how many houses showed no signs of recovery.
We crossed the bridge into the Lower Ninth Ward. This was the neighborhood that sat right next to the levees, and it was absolutely devastated when they failed. A storm surge of more than 18 feet wiped away houses, vehicles, and everything else in its way. As we drove through the Lower Ninth, our van was absolutely silent as we took in the destruction. There are blocks and blocks of the area that are just empty, nothing but overgrown lots where houses used to stand. Those houses that remain are, if possible, even more eerie; they are run-down, boarded up and abandoned, even after two and a half years. Some have massive piles of debris out front, from a recovery effort that just stopped. What really got me, however, was the paint markings. During the initial rescue and recovery effort after the storm, firefighters and other rescue workers used spray paint to mark houses as occupied, abandoned, uninhabitable, structurally dangerous, containing pets, or containing the bodies of humans and animals. In many of the lower-class neighborhoods like the Upper and Lower Ninth, those paint markings still remain on the houses as a silent reminder of the vast destruction of property and life that took place.
Listen to what you will; New Orleans has a long way to go before it recovers. In a rare moment of naiveté, I thought that between Americorps, Habitat for Humanity, and the other volunteer non-profits down here, the cleanup and rebuilding would take no more than a couple years. That was before I arrived. There is no way that some of these neighborhoods are going to recover anytime sooner than ten years.
If anybody wants to help out down here, let me know.
New Orleans, LA
(A brief note before I get into weighty matters. Brett Favre retired the other day, ending a long and brilliant career. He owns just about every passing record in the books, but it is not simply his statistics that make him among the greatest to ever play football. The essence of Brett Favre's brilliance was in his sheer love for the game, his unparalleled toughness, and his ability to improvise. I remember a game in which he took a brutal sack that sent him to the sidelines. The announcers guessed that he would be out for the rest of the game. Two plays later, on fourth-and-fifteen, Favre went back into the game while the team doctor had his back turned. He waved the backup quarterback off, took the snap...and proceeded to throw a 35-yard touchdown pass. Farewell Brett, you will be missed.)
Now for the serious. Yesterday afternoon, after three days in the van, we arrived in New Orleans. We drove through the city on our way to Camp Hope (the volunteer camp where we are staying) and at first, it appears that the city was on its way to recovery. Downtown was certainly thriving, the Superdome showed none of the trauma that it and the people inside had endured, and the billboards and people were out in full force.
Then we headed out of the city. We soon found ourselves in the Upper Ninth Ward, where floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina had reached almost five feet. I was really surprised by how many houses showed no signs of recovery.
We crossed the bridge into the Lower Ninth Ward. This was the neighborhood that sat right next to the levees, and it was absolutely devastated when they failed. A storm surge of more than 18 feet wiped away houses, vehicles, and everything else in its way. As we drove through the Lower Ninth, our van was absolutely silent as we took in the destruction. There are blocks and blocks of the area that are just empty, nothing but overgrown lots where houses used to stand. Those houses that remain are, if possible, even more eerie; they are run-down, boarded up and abandoned, even after two and a half years. Some have massive piles of debris out front, from a recovery effort that just stopped. What really got me, however, was the paint markings. During the initial rescue and recovery effort after the storm, firefighters and other rescue workers used spray paint to mark houses as occupied, abandoned, uninhabitable, structurally dangerous, containing pets, or containing the bodies of humans and animals. In many of the lower-class neighborhoods like the Upper and Lower Ninth, those paint markings still remain on the houses as a silent reminder of the vast destruction of property and life that took place.
Listen to what you will; New Orleans has a long way to go before it recovers. In a rare moment of naiveté, I thought that between Americorps, Habitat for Humanity, and the other volunteer non-profits down here, the cleanup and rebuilding would take no more than a couple years. That was before I arrived. There is no way that some of these neighborhoods are going to recover anytime sooner than ten years.
If anybody wants to help out down here, let me know.
02 March 2008
...When We're On The Road
Tomorrow is the day that Sun Four (the fourth team in the Sun unit) begins our three-day road trip from Denver to New Orleans, where we will spend the next two months leading volunteers and assisting Habitat For Humanity. As I've mentioned before, this is my dream project. The ten-person team I'm on is great, even with two of our original members out with injury and illness. And I mean, come on...it's NEW ORLEANS.
Americorps NCCC is an intensive and difficult program requiring a great deal of commitment to the work being done and the mission of the program. It seems that the people that signed on would tend to be mature and knowledgeable about global issues...but unfortunately that's often not the case. I've noticed a real lack of maturity from some of the people here, and it worries me. Thankfully, none of them have found their way onto my team, but they are out there. There are times that I feel like I'm back in 8th grade, with all the gossip and drama going around. Not only is it annoying, it speaks to a greater lack of dedication and maturity that, while not a real problem during training, might end up causing real problems on a disaster relief call or after two months camping out in a national park.
Don't get me wrong. The vast majority of the people here are intelligent, capable, and very mature, and I'm very glad to have the opportunity to talk and work with them. However, as always there is that small number who are apparently unable to grow up and act their age.
Bitching aside, we of Sun Four are the proud owners of a brand-new Chevrolet 15-passenger van (less than 50 miles on the clock) that looks and drives brilliantly (for a van, I mean). I cannot wait...three days of roadtripping across the Heartland and down to the Gulf.
Lord I was born a ramblin' man...
Americorps NCCC is an intensive and difficult program requiring a great deal of commitment to the work being done and the mission of the program. It seems that the people that signed on would tend to be mature and knowledgeable about global issues...but unfortunately that's often not the case. I've noticed a real lack of maturity from some of the people here, and it worries me. Thankfully, none of them have found their way onto my team, but they are out there. There are times that I feel like I'm back in 8th grade, with all the gossip and drama going around. Not only is it annoying, it speaks to a greater lack of dedication and maturity that, while not a real problem during training, might end up causing real problems on a disaster relief call or after two months camping out in a national park.
Don't get me wrong. The vast majority of the people here are intelligent, capable, and very mature, and I'm very glad to have the opportunity to talk and work with them. However, as always there is that small number who are apparently unable to grow up and act their age.
Bitching aside, we of Sun Four are the proud owners of a brand-new Chevrolet 15-passenger van (less than 50 miles on the clock) that looks and drives brilliantly (for a van, I mean). I cannot wait...three days of roadtripping across the Heartland and down to the Gulf.
Lord I was born a ramblin' man...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
