Thursday, February 19, 2004|
Two must-reads on the web: 10:00:21 PM | Jesus' General on Roger Williams University College Republicans new "white only" scholarship. Send your letters of support. The General's cousin Earl certainly needs it. And this. There's no more racism in this country! Isn't it obvious? So what if they had to sue to get it -- at least the Ohioans in the hollow finally have tap water. Now they can stop their whining! 
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New Orleans makes it into the news again. For what, you ask? Another murder, of course. This time just a few short blocks away from our house during one of Mardi Gras' more well-liked parades, the all-women krewe of Muses. I'd been down at the parade earlier in the evening and farther uptown. A close friend knew someone in Muses so we were guaranteed a few "throws." Indeed we got a few, from a Muses toothbrush and a red high-heeled squeeky toy to a set of blue plastic lips with a built-in whistle. 7:23:46 PM | Around 8:30 I walked home through the crowds of drunks, young and old, that line St. Charles during every parade. The later it gets the more drunks there are, of course, and last night was no exception. There were groups of young boys holding fifths of gin/whiskey/vodka/whatever all over the "neutral ground," the area where the streetcars normally run. I got home around 8:45, maybe a little bit past. Fifteen minutes later a young mother lay dead five blocks toward the Quarter, one of four innocent parade watchers who were shot by a group of "friends" who chose to argue with guns. Eleven bullet casings were found at the scene. Eleven. The police were everywhere and nowhere, it seems. Not twenty feet away from the fight that preceeded the shooting were six cops. One of my students, a young suburban cop, was at the scene and ran after one of the shooters. He was hit in the back by a pipe or bat or something -- he managed to limp into class this morning to tell us the story. He said he would have shot the shooter in the back, but there were too many little kids all over the place and he was worried he'd shoot one of them instead. (He had two guns with him -- off duty.) There were cops everywhere, but no arrests were made until today. All of the boys are under 18 and one is only 15. Two guns were taken in as evidence. They stopped the parade for ten minutes or so, to attend to the wounded I guess, then started it up again. Immediately after the last float rolled, the cleaning crews came in, as they always do. They scoured the street and the neutral ground, picking up empty bottles, broken strands of beads, crinkled up food wrappers. Shiny beads drip from the streetcar wires like spanish moss. A natural part of the scene, really. Needlesss to say, this has put a damper on Mardi Gras, at least for those of us who've never been here for it before. (Apparently this isn't the first time there's been a death at a parade. It happened in 1991 and 1995 too.) The mayor has said we should enjoy Mardi Gras as the city always has. He said no one should stay home tonight or tomorrow night or the night after. The crowds have listened -- already empty bottles litter the "neutral ground," and down the street, the jail house offers parking for a mere $10. Let the good times roll.
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Last update: 8/24/05; 7:42:26 PM .
