Wow, man.

I go away for a few days, and the blogpocheh goes off on people who are chagrined that New Orleans' recovery happens to include African-Americans. I'm taking a cue from my dad on this one: tough frickin' toenails, bigots. Varg also provides one heckuva commentary on this subject, and Marco links to "33 steps that have been taken and continue to be taken to kill New Orleans". Yowza. Damn good writing, and if it doesn't make you think, your brains are just gone.

I guess I'm a tad more sensitive to all the picking over race and all because I attended a cousin's wedding up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina on Saturday. My mom's side of the family is not Jewish, so it was quite the Protestant ceremony. The backdrop was a country club in the heart of a gated community in which my aunt and uncle have a summer home. Before the actual wedding and reception, there was also a rehearsal dinner (which we were late for - that traffic on I-85 can be just killer), separate bride's and groom's brunches (read, women's and men's brunches) on the morning of the wedding, and a bridesmaids'/groomsmens' tennis competition on the clay-composite courts at the country club. The courts sported signs that said players were required to wear ALL WHITE ONLY (apparently, it ain't tennis unless one is blinding the spectators while one is playing, which is why I was tickled to see Dan out there with his dark socks on). No Serena Williams-style black catsuits allowed on the court.

Yeah, it was funny going into that world for a weekend. The surroundings were beautiful, yet unreal in a certain way. My aunt, uncle, and cousins live in Atlanta and rub shoulders with some upper-class folk there. The bride's family and friends were from Birmingham and thereabouts. When they heard we were from New Orleans, Dan and I were asked about our house and how it did. I went further and told them more about the insane, halting progress that is recovery in these parts, and the people I talked to said, "Wow...that's all still happening?? You just don't see much of that in the news!"

Uh, no, you don't. And, quite possibly, you don't want to, even though I am standing here in your face wearing a certain Dirty Coast t-shirt. Then again, maybe I was talking to waaay too many Falcons fans.

Everyone is stuck in a certain kind of complacency wherever they happen to be. It takes a lot of effort to look beyond that sense of security and see things for what they actually are. Who knows, it may actually require the complacent ones to get off their secure li'l butts and do something. Act. Change. Acknowledge wrongdoing. Right those wrongs.

Or maybe I just need to get out more and get my head out of all this quasi-lefty blogging for justice in these parts.

If and when I do, though, I know just how I will be attired:

Time to get cracking on that exercise regimen!