Well, since it’s been a few days since my last post, I thought a quick update was in order. Things have been — busy.
So far, private donations of Katrina hurricane relief efforts have topped $700,000,000 . This tells me a couple of things. First, my belief in the basic kindness and decency of most people is not misplaced. Second, cries of racism from someone I consider to be one of the most racist human beings on the planet (Jesse Jackson) are not born out in those numbers or in the stories I’ve heard and read. People aren’t helping black or white people; they are helping people.
The floodwaters in New Orleans are dropping faster than publicly anticipated. This is due to a few things mainsream media don’t seem to mention: good weather promotes evaporation; some of that water will drain through the soil itself; more pumps are online; deliberate breaks in the flood wall and levee system are draining.
Plans are being made to open the French Quarter within 90 days. All of New Orleans is not under water. In fact, not all of New Orleans was ever flooded; just most of it. For better or worse, Mardi Gras is planned for the end of February.
Slowly, but surely, things are coming back online.
Finally, if you haven’t yet given, would you please give something to The American Red Cross? Trust me — it matters.
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Hey John,
One of the most surprising, and amazing, shows of aid I’ve seen lately was at the Famiglia Pizza restaurant up near 48th and Broadway in NYC, where I often eat lunch on my way to the theatre I work at (got a new gig mixing the NYC production of “Altar Boyz” (http://www.AltarBoyz.com) last week). For all of last week (not sure if they’ll continue it beyond then or not, the sign just said “this week” without a date), they were donating ALL proceeds to support victims of the hurricane.
And when I say all, I really mean it. They’d calculate the cost of your order, and then instead of taking it into the register, they’d point to a large water bottle with a sign on it and tell you to stuff it in there. I was truly stunned, and ended up eating there a couple times even when I hadn’t initially planned to as a way to give some support, small as it may be, when I couldn’t otherwise do much monetarily at the moment.
–Andy