I’m very happy at this moment in my life, but truth be told I’d be happier if I was in New Orleans. This time last year I was doing rehab work on the home of a Tuskegee airman and his wife in New Orleans East. They’d lost almost everything in the flood.
One night after work we were walking back from Cafe Du Monde, cutting through the French Quarter, and it started to rain. We were hugging the buildings so that the balconies and awnings would shield us from the rain. From half a block away I could hear someone singing Temptations songs acapella. When we reached the corner I saw this middle-aged Black couple standing in the doorway of an antique store, singing and clapping. He was wearing a fedora and a three piece suit and she was wearing a straw hat and a sun dress. Standing in front of them was this drunk, blonde, white girl who didn’t look much older than twenty. She had her eyes closed and was swaying to the music with one hand on a light post to keep her balance. She was completely oblivious to the fact that she was getting soaked. I stood and watched and listened, thinking about how this probably wouldn’t happen anywhere else in the world.
WE MUST. REBUILD. THIS CITY.