Funerals In Worlds Other Than Your Own

For my Freshman Seminar course this semester, I chose to focus on how Xavier's mission to promote a more just and humane society relates to death and burials in New Orleans. I'm interested in how the dead can speak to us, and I frame the discussion around Ezekiel 37, where the dry bones come back to life to symbolize hope for Judah. Later in the semester we'll be working with Save Our Cemeteries to map/record graves at St. Louis Cemetery # 2.

For the first blog entry, I asked students to write about memorable funerals they've attended. Reading these posts reinforced to me that many of my students come from worlds that are very foreign to me.

The students I have from New Orleans all seemed to have had classmates die in Junior High and High School from gun violence. They all had funeral shirts in their closets, many of which depict the slain teenager as a soldier holding a gun. My students talked about how people put guns and other weapons into the coffins for burial, and then the people at the funeral talk about how all this violence needs to stop.

One funeral in particular amazed me. It was for the New Orleans rapper Soulja Slim. He was shot to death the day before Thanksgiving in 2003. They said that at the funeral his family dressed his corpse in camouflage and large bling jewelry and then put the body behind the wheel of his Escalade like he was driving in style. Then people at the funeral would have their pictures taken while sitting next to his corpse. My student said you could hear his bones cracking and in the words of my student: "it was not too good of a smell to me." It is clear that I will never have any idea what it is like to grow up with so much violence and senseless death.

While Soulja Slim's funeral sort of freaks me out, something probably more unusual strikes me as normal for New Orleans. One of the most famous interred individuals at St. Louis Cemetery #2 is Ernie K-Doe, and his widow has a waxed replica of the man that she drives around town in a hearse and gives him baths in flowers. That all seems pretty natural for this unconventional city. But then again, Soulja Slim's funeral celebrated his life more than mourned his death. That's what we do here, we celebrate.

43

I turned 43 today. I know it's my birthday because stupid facebook keeps telling me people are writing on my wall. You can read about my life (and see my brother Jim in his underwear) here.

For another perspective, one that is more Macrocephalic, look to my blogging nemesis ADrasticallyBigHeados. He turned 43 many, many years ago. Now he peddles tiles with cat pictures to tourists.

Where I Live Nooses are "Humorous"

Terrence Lee, an African American employee of Jefferson Parish Sewerage, complained that items in his boss's office such as a noose and whipping post had "racial overtones." Parish supervisors suspended his supervisors 4-6 weeks, but the personnel officer reduced it to 5-20 days. They let Terrence know about the reduction on MLK day, of course. The Parish official said it was a "joke" and the rope device was not a noose, but a lariat. The Hearing Officer wrote "I find as a matter of fact that these items were intended to be humorous in nature, that they were not intended to harm or harass anyone."

Yeah right, nothing says funny like a noose. Like this timeless classic: A white racist, a noose, and a confederate flag walk into a bar. And it turns out its 2009. Snap.

Cautiously Optimistic for America

My family and I are in Atlanta where I am giving a lecture entitled "Beer, the Bible and Archaeology" at the Carlos Museum at Emory University.

We drove up here on Saturday. It was amazing driving through Dixie, seeing so many confederate flags, and listening on the radio to all the discussion about Barak Obama becoming the 44th U.S. president. This moment in history was especially poignant while driving through epicenters for the Civil Rights movement like Montgomery and Birmingham. I of course tried to play Clark Griswald and teach the kids about the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, the Montgomery bus boycott 1955-56, the Selma to Montgomery marches, and the struggles culminating with the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. I even played songs like Neil Young's Alabama and Lynard Skynard's response Sweet Home Alabama.

Then on MLK day, along with viewing the King Tut exhibit and visiting the Jimmy Carter library, we drove to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, where the most famous civil rights leader was born and where he lies buried.

I'm afraid that all of the unity and good will and hope that Obama brings to this country and the world will gradually dissolve through the next two years. But for now, I'm thrilled to be watching the incredible jubilation on so many faces on this great day. And if Obama asks me to make sacrifices for the good of the world, and if he asks me to do even more service than I currently perform, I'm willing to be sure. While I am clearly capable of dissent, I am even better at following a true leader. So now, with the help of millions, and standing on the shoulders of so many people who have struggled, Obama sets out to fix the world.

Barkus 2009 Poster

Barkus finally released their poster for 2009, and we registered Kochise and Mosey today. The theme is Batmutt: The Bark Knight. We're rolling Sunday February 15th.

Beyond Jena Forum

The 2007 demonstrations in Jena Louisiana were the first civil rights protest organized through blogs according to Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune. My colleagues at Xavier Kimberly Chandler and Bart Everson put together this fascinating program called "Beyond Jena: A Forum on Bloggers of Color, Education and Social Justice in New Orleans." The first panel is: The Rise of Blogging and Grassroots Media as Tools for Social Justice in New Orleans and Beyond. The second panel is: Using Blogging and Grassroots Media as an Educational Tool to Realize the Xavier Mission: A Discussion of Best Practices and Student Reflections.

I encourage you to make it if you can. It takes place on January 31st and you can register here (it's free).

No Heroes

Back in the early 80's I was in a punk rock band in Omaha called No Heroes. Mr. Fink, aka Jason Willis, writes about No Heroes here in his ongoing effort to archive "the scene" on the Great Plains back in the early 1980's. Most people just threw out their old cassettes. Jason however, felt the need to share. I'd say he was a hero, but that would fly in the face of all that our band stood for.

Please Please Please Let the Beer be OK

The Abita Brewery exploded this morning. No one was hurt, and more importantly, the tank that exploded was empty at the time.

Federal Response Wasn't Slow After Katrina???

I can't wait for George W. Bush to disappear to his mansion in Dallas, and I hope I don't have to witness any more garbage like today when during a rare press conference, he spoke about regrets. He regretted the Mission Accomplished sign, and not finding WMDs. When asked about Katrina he said "Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs."

Sigh...

Senator Mary Landrieu responded: "The president’s assertion that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee breaks was anything but slow and disgracefully dysfunctional reveals that the administration’s tunnel vision has unfortunately remained constant since August 29, 2005. Clearly there were mistakes made at every level of government, and I and other Louisiana leaders have accepted responsibility for our own. But no state is equipped to respond to a catastrophe of this magnitude, and for this reason, federal law specifically tasks the federal government to step up. It did not, and the president's failure to account for that responsibility more than three years later is terribly disappointing."

Even Republicans Jindal and Vitter were critical of the initial response, and even more so about how little has been done the past 3 1/2 years to help us recover. Jindal stated more could be done to cut through the federal red tape. Of course it could.

So thanks Coast Guard. You guys and girls were real heroes after the federal levees failed and you saved many lives. I was here to see it. When the levees broke G.W. Bush was eating birthday cake with his friend John "that one" McCain a thousand miles away from here.

8 more days, just 8 more days.

Landlords Lament

In April of 2007 we purchased a double at 224-226 S. Hennessey for $214,000. We had to move out of our FEMA trailer so work could begin on our house, and we knew we would have to live somewhere else for at least a year. Instead of renting, we decided to invest in the neighborhood, and we would live downstairs, rent out the upstairs, and when we moved back home, we'd rent out both up and down. I think Therese and I would gladly sell the place at this point for the same price, and perhaps we would have been better off renting. Clearly our money was better invested in the house when compared to the real estate market these days.

We had great tenants upstairs, who just moved out. In fact, they moved in when one of their moms found the apartment was available from this blog. I've noticed Craig's List is flooded with properties so that isn't as effective as it used to be. Maybe we'll put ads in the local neighborhood coffee shops. Anyway, if you know anyone looking for a 2 Bed/1 Bath apartment in Mid-City, we'd sure like to be their landlords.