Another Cajun Trinity......

Down here, good food, good drink and good music are part of any occasion. Whether we're celebrating or mourning, a warm spicy bowl of gumbo, a cold beer, and a little zydeco or jazz sooth the soul. Today we'll be remembering and trying to make sense of what happened a year ago. I have no doubt that the elements of this Cajun Trinity will be involved in most of this reminiscing.

This brings up another one of those losses on a list that never seems to end. So many recipes were lost in the storm. To some, this may not seem too important, but, down here, it matters--a lot. People are searching for recipes that were part of their lives--that favorite doberge cake for birthdays, that favorite sweet potato casserole for the holidays. Food brings continuity, familiarity, and comfort to lives that have been so drastically changed. There is a recipe for diaspora gumbo making the rounds.

When LSU won the BCS national championship in football there was so much music written to honor the occasion. That's the way it is here. Katrina has her own music. Here's a link to one of my favorites: Our Home Louisiana

http://www.bcbsla.com/web/media/Our_Home_Louisiana.mp3

So many ugly images of New Orleans and Louisiana have gone out across the world (deservedly so in some cases), but there is so much more to this state and its people. I read a comment saying New Orleans, in any season, is not for the faint of heart and that may be true. Yet, if she casts her spell on you--she's got cha--forever.

If things had gone differently after the storm, if things had been done correctly, if things had been done....I think, I hope, we would have seen a different story playing out on tvs across the world. I've heard people say that what we saw in NOLA could/should have opened a national forum on race and poverty. Why didn't it?

As the current Battle of New Orleans is being fought, I think it is important to remember the severity of what happened to the city and its people. These excerpts from an article in the NY Times describing NOLA in the days after Katrina zero in:

"....a catatonic city, in which basic societal tenets - such as, we collect our dead - had joined other precious belongings in floating away."

"A full week after the hurricane, as the colossal forensic challenge before them came more clearly in focus, various government officials struggled with an awkward but unavoidable question: who is going to pick up the bodies? Federal and state officials quarreled with one another over who had responsibility for collection: The Federal Emergency Management Agency? Louisiana? The National Guard? Meanwhile, dead Americans decomposed on American soil."

"Civilizations are often judged by how they treat their deceased," Mr. Jensen said. In the case of the Louisiana dead, he added, "the system failed."

Blame, disgust, judgment....bring it on. Just keep it in context, please.