For a time in the 19th century, New Orleans was the most cosmopolitan city in the world. People from Africa, the Carribean, Europe, Asia and elsewhere were crammed in to compact neighborhoods to live next to one another. There wasn't even room for widespread self-segregation. (This was before New York became the quintessential melting pot of the US.) There was such an abrupt fusion of culture and custom in the Big Easy-- the likes of which had never been seen before.

The Mississippi Delta was the birthplace of the blues, which is the mother of all contemporary music. The Creoles in New Orleans, of African and French origin, were considered equal to the whites, and therefore privy to instruction in the classical European music tradition. But something happened along the way and suddenly anyone with any skin tone other than white became black. So when these musicians took their classical styles and mixed with the Black blues players...ragtime, and then Jazz were born. And it was born in this city between Lake Ponchartrain and the Mississippi river. Something beautiful spawned from from Intolerance--and it was here, in this port city, in the Great State of Louisiana...with it's Napoleonic Code and Parishes. The home of Culture for a burgeoning America.

True, the New Orleans of the 21st century was never perfect, hell it was always dangerous (and coincidentally exciting) but never perfect at any time. But what city is? But as a Native Louisianian, it sorrows me beyond words regard the destruction this city has faced in the last few days, and the suffering it's inhabitants (as well as those who live along the Gulf Coast) have had to endure. I spent much time from New Orleans to Slidell to Gulfport and Biloxi, and all along the Gulf Coast to Mississippi and Alabama, and was awestruck to see places I had known so well inihilated by the unprecedented destructive whims of Mother Nature.

This year started off with yet another example of Mother Nature's fury, an unforseen tsunami. Wiping away businesses and homes and lives in the hundreds of thousands (if not millions). This time the menace had a name, and that name was Katrina. No words can be of any solace at a time such as this and perhaps the only thing that can be of any comfort is the eternal nature of the Human Will to triumph over catastrophe. To have enough hope and faith to perservere, to overcome the painful obstacles that lie ahead. To band together as brothers and sisters and take refuge in the fact that above all, through trials and tribulations--the interminable Human Spirit will carry on.

With 80 per cent or so of the city of New Orleans underwater, a full evacuation called for, and virtually endless destruction...I simply hope that the loss of life will be minimized, and suffering ended as quickly as possible. The Army Corps of Engineers failed to plug breaches in the levies, and there wasn't enough National Guardsmen to go around since most of them are in Iraq. Let's just hope priorities will be realized in a timely manner, and the survivors can be aided with food and shelter.