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MARCH ON CITY HALL POST-MORTEM
posted Saturday, 13 January 2007
L: Katherine & Dangerblond meet Dick Shavers' students. Photo by Maitri. R: Bloggers and fellow travelers. Photo by Dangerblond.
Dangerblond has stolen my thunder by writing a really swell narrative account of the march. Damn you, Kim, that's what I planned to do. Hmm, now that I think of it, an impressionistic account will be less work for me. Yay, less work. Slacker blogging rules.
I rode downtown with my friend Justin Zitler. I was feeling peckish before we left so I bopped over to La Boulangerie, which is a mere two blocks from me. I asked the Z-Man what he wanted, I bought it and forgot to give it to him. Slate has informed me that Justin is expecting his apple turnover. I have a confession Z-Man: I ate it and it was yummy. I did, however, pay for it so tough you know what...
Slate was the first person we ran into. She was subduing her bike at Canal Place. Or was she locking it? Justin and Slate hit it off like a house afire. I hope that arson isn't the result of their meeting...
We stood by the roundabout in front of the Hilton in the shadow of the statute of the brilliant, bellicose, alcoholic and half-American Winston Churchill. Then bloggers, readers and friends began to show up and we joined the mass of people in front of the World Trade Center. I thought of Clay Shaw who had an office in the WTC back in the Sixties. Shaw was the man who was wrongly prosecuted by Jim Garrison for the Kennedy assassination. Slow Eddie Jordan isn't the only shite District Attorney we've ever had, y'all. But at least Slow Eddie could pass a sobriety test: Garrison was frequently drunk as a skunk on the job.
The march actually started on time. Nothing starts on time here, y'all. It was a shocker. I began the march with a bunch of bloggers and friends: Michael, Loki, Maitri, D, Alexis, Celcus, Ed McMeetings among others but eventually we splintered. And I wound up being the fifth (or was it sixth?) wheel with the newlyweds: Maitri and D and Loki and Alexis. I felt vaguely like Bob Eubanks the leering host of the inane old quiz show, The Newlywed Game. But I skipped the suggestive and smarmy questions in favor of bantering with Loki and Alexis. One of my new year's resolutions was to mock Loki less. That one went down the drain fast, y'all, Alexis told me it might freak him out and I didn't want to do that to one of my favorite blogger comrades in arms.
L: Signage. Photo by Humid City. R: On the march. Photo by Maitri.
On the route I kept running into people. In the picture above left I was chatting with an old friend of Mister Wet's. In the picture on the right I found myself next to my friend and neighbor Maggie the bookseller. Only in Debrisville would you run into oodles of people in the middle of a protest march. But this was a solemn event with nary a throw in sight. At one point, Loki and I led the crowd in a rousing chorus of the Howard Beale rant from Network: "We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it any more." I love grammatical chants.
When we arrived at City Hall, we met more of our blogthren (bloggerthren?) Ashley Morris was there beating the bejesus out of a snare drum as an homage to the late Dick Shavers. Morwen was waving a sign and looking fashionably militant or was that militantly fashionable?
L: Militant drummers; be scared. Photo by Humid City. R: Militant bloggers; even scarier. Photo by Mark Folse.
I'd traded cell phone numbers with oodles of people BUT it was really hard hearing anyone. The only ones I was able to hear were Dr. A and Houma blogger Donnie McDaniel. Dr. A found us by the WWL and CNN satellite trucks. Dr. A and I rushed the stage in the wake of local character Antoinette Kador and found ourselves able to hear our friends Karen and Bart. We could NOT, however, see C Ray's shiny and empty head so I had no idea that he was present for the well deserved can of whoop ass that was served by the speakers. Or was it a shit sandwich?
L: Karen gives them hell. Photo by Humid City. R: Bart tries to shame C Ray, the Cynthias and Oliver the Actor. Photo by Alan Gutierrez.
Karen and Bart were magnificent; they wiped the smirk right off C Ray's face, y'all. I've never heard Bart raise his voice before and bet that he doesn't do it very often, which was why his speech was so powerful. Karen, on the other hand, is a bit of a street fighter so her pugnacity was no surprise to anyone who knows her. Here's a link to the text of her concise and succinctly angry speech.
I don't mean to be overly bloggercentric but with the exception of Dick Shavers' sister, Nakita the rest of the speakers weren't all that memorable. She was there to testify as the sister of a victim of crime and as a living refutation to political types on both the hard right and hard left who think that black New Orleanians are not up in arms about violent crime.
It was a most satisfactory day. It was really a march on City Hall and a protest against the cretinous and craven politicians who were elected to run our city. They have failed us on so many issues beyond crime: rebuilding, education, healthcare, infrastructure, planning; you name it and they've made things worse. One subtext of the march is that our "leaders" should remember the old adage: "When you're in a hole, stop digging."
Those of us who marched have put them on notice: we are watching and if you don't start doing things differently we may have to make like Nikita Kruschev and declare: "We will bury you." I don't know exactly how but it's sure a stirring way to end a post, innit?
comments (7)
1. ashley left...
Saturday, 13 January 2007 3:37 am :: http://ashleymorris.typepad.com
Yepper, that captures it.
2. Donnie McDaniel left...
Saturday, 13 January 2007 5:20 am :: http://thekatrinacrat.blogspot.com/
Great write up! I'm so glad I got to make it.
3. MAD left...
Saturday, 13 January 2007 8:49 am
What the photos don't show is that behind Nagin was a phalanx of
serious-looking Men in Black who were protecting his rear. They were
attempting to set up an escape perimeter behind Nagin in case things got
ugly, I suppose. How appropriate.
4. sophmom left...
Saturday, 13 January 2007 9:53 am :: http://www.dotcalm.blog-city.com
I'm so proud of the blogthren (more great coinage, A). Ya'll did it up
right, you did. Thanks for the account and the pics.
5. kevin g left...
Saturday, 13 January 2007 12:50 pm :: http://missedexit.blog-city.com/
This whole event is very life-affirming to read about. You and your fellow
bloggers have captured the true human emotions that have come to a boil
over the crime and lack of rebuilding as a result of Katrina. I watched CNN
and kept thinkin', "Damn, these people are really doing it!" So much talk
is made, but to know that you and your neighbours marched, and even to have
the late Dick Shaver's sister, Nakita speak, gives me goosebumps, and Nagin
was there, I saw him on CNN, and it's funny, I probably can't name the
mayor of any other major city, except NYC, however, I know who he is, what
he looks like/Etc., and that's through the power of you and your fellow
NOLA bloggers. Continue the momentum!
6. ashley left...
Saturday, 13 January 2007 2:08 pm :: http://ashleymorris.typepad.com
Unfortunately, I can name the mayor of San Antonio...
7. Infrogmation left...
Sunday, 14 January 2007 10:04 am :: http://infrogmation.livejournal.com/
It was good meeting you breifly.