Teaching

When I finish teaching today just after noon, I'll walk back to the Administration building and down the hallway to my office. On the way I'll walk past Dr Jones teaching calculus, Dr Rotundo-McCord teaching history, and Dr Serban teaching Political Science. It is so great to be back at Xavier, and to be teaching with so many talented colleagues. So thank you to all of those who made reopening Xavier possible, especially the students. I just wanted to write down something positive before tonight's State of the Union Address, as I have no doubt that I'll be depressed for days to come.

Disengaged

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."

George W. Bush on Good Morning America, September 1, 2005 (3 days after Katrina hit New Orleans)

"could greatly overtop levees and protective systems" and "incredible search and rescue needs (60,000-plus)."

Computer presentation by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) early in the morning of August 27th, 2005 (2 days before the hurricane hit New Orleans)

"likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching."

41-page assessment by the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC) emailed to White House August 29th (hours before the storm hit).

Moreover, way back on July 23rd, 2004 (13 months before Katrina), FEMA received a report on the effects of a fictitious Category 3 Hurricane named Pam. They predicted the liklihood of levees breaking, thousands dead, even more stranded, and the lack of communication among first responders and leaders. The federal government paid half a million dollars for this report, so I hope they listened.

There's more information in this Washington Post article and a bunch more in this timeline.

Mid-Life Crisis

Lordy, Lordy, Today I'm 40.

Bush Administration Opposed to Baker Bill

Congressman Richard Baker (R-Baton Rouge, LA) has been trying for months to get a bill passed that would form a government entity which would draw on federal financing to pay at least 60 percent equity of the more than 200,000 homes that were damaged by flood. It would have also have paid off the mortgages. After some time, the original owners would have first dibs to buy back the property from the government, but if they didn't, the government would own the property. It could sell it, or convert it into green space, whatever. It was a plan that many of us in Louisiana needed. Therese and I had flood insurance, as we needed it when we bought our house. But we're still not sure what our insurance company is going to offer us in a settlement. There is a good chance that at the end of the day Therese and I will be making mortgage payments on a structure that we bought for $157,000, had appreciated to about $215,000 before the hurricane, and now will require about $150,000 to repair it. So in the end it might not be worth sinking in so much money into a damaged house, and we then would have to declare bankruptcy, and the bank would then own the damaged house. There are thousands more in a similar situation. Pretty much all recovery plans for this region were counting on the Baker Bill. Moreover, it wouldn't have cost tax payers a thing, so it seemed like a no brainer to pass. However, today I read that Donald Powell, appointed by Bush to oversee recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said he is not in favor of the Baker Bill. This news came as a real suprise to politicians and citizens down here in New Orleans. Powell said that the 6 billion Congress approved for a grant will be plenty for Louisiana, and that the money should only help those who flooded who didn't live in a flood prone area. So again, it would seem, the government fails to understand the level of devestation, and we in Louisiana are on our own. Todays Times-Picayune has more on this sad story.

Biblical Studies Carnival

A couple of days ago I received an email from Tyler Williams asking for submissions for "the second Biblical Studies Carnival, a monthly carnival showcasing the best of weblog posts in the area of academic biblical studies." I think that's a great idea, and you can read more about this Carnival here. It also got me thinking about my blog. I started it to write about teaching biblical studies. In fact my description, as you see above, is "A personal journal about teaching the Bible and ancient Near Eastern history/theology/religion/archaeology to university students, and whatever else happens to be on my mind." But lately very little has been about teaching Bible, and instead it has been about my life dealing in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans (part of which is teaching). But I'm not yet ready to change the description, and I very much am looking forward to the day, whenever it might be, that my postings are almost all related to teaching biblical studies. For now I want to be part of the Reality Show that is New Orleans.

Touring Tragedy

This weekend I decided to tour the areas most devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I had mixed feelings about doing this. Several people feel that their tragedy should be personal and they resent the many cars that drive through their decimated neighborhoods. But I felt it was important. I think the biggest problem we face down here in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is that other people in this country, and especially our government, just don't understand the level of destruction that happened down here. I don't understand it myself, but in an effort to be better informed, we drove through the Lakeview neighborhood on Saturday. Then on Sunday we drove over the Industrial Canal through the Lower 9th Ward, and then went all the way to Waveland Missississippi where the eye of Katrina hit. That's about 65 miles. That's what impacted me the most. From my neighborhood in New Orleans, which represents the western most flooded areas, we drove 65 miles and we never left a neighborhood that didn't flood and/or have severe wind damage. Plus I could have driven all the way to Alabama and seen the effects of this storm. It made me realize that it will take decades to recover from this catastrophe. While pictures can't begin to accurately capture what we saw this weekend, here are a couple:

This picture shows stairs leading to nowhere in the Lower 9th Ward. It is in a neighborhood that was once densely populated with houses. Now all that is left are the foundations. This damage was caused by the breach in the Industrial Canal, and the current must have been intense.About two miles from the breach you can see thousands of houses like this one:

The water apparently lifted the house up and in the end it came to rest on top of this car.
It's now nearly five months after this tragedy. We saw several people living in nearly collapsed buildings, or in tents where their houses once stood. Until our government leaders realize this wasn't an ordinary hurricane, and they realize that despite years of treating people down here in Lousiana like a third world country or ignoring us, we are actually citizens of the U.S. and we need some serious help.

Students

At 8 AM this morning, I taught for the first time since August 25th. The elevator wasn't working, so all the students had to walk up five flights of stairs, and not one complained. I asked them what the hell they were doing here, in the midst of such devestation. They had great answers.

I have a feeling that this semester will be the jewel in my teaching career. The students and I have so much to talk about.

MLK, God, and Chocolate

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It was nice to have a three day weekend and reflect on peace and justice. At a New Orleans MLK event, Mayor Nagin delivered a controversial speech that led me to question if he is getting enough sleep. Among other things, he said that "Surely God is mad at America, he's sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane and it's destroying and putting stress on this country. Surely he's not approving of us being in Iraq under false pretense. " He later added "This city will be chocolate at the end of the day ... This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." I personally don't know if God sent the hurricane, or if he did why he did it. I'm against the war in Iraq, but I don't see any connection to weather. I liked living in New Orleans, a city that was 68% African American before the hurricane. But I am not a big fan of chocolate, and and there we so many fat people in New Orleans, that perhaps we had too much chocolate. Carob is a good healthy subsistute for chocolate. Maybe God wants us to be a carob city.

Gil's Hurricane

I went to pick up my son Gilgamesh, who is 5, from his school the other day. The teacher gave me all of his drawings, one of which was a picture of a hurricane. Therese and I talk to the kids about what happened to New Orleans, they seem fine, but it obviously impacted them quite a bit. I know that Gilgamesh was deeply concerned when I was still in New Orleans and he saw some horrendous images on the news when he was evacuated in Mississippi. I'm sorry he had to experience all of this.

Sorry God on Friday the 13th

This morning I was walking to work. I used to do this by choice because I believe that our country's dependency on oil has thrown the world into turmoil. But now I no longer even have a choice, because my car was destroyed in the flood. But this morning it was raining very hard, and on the way a lightning bolt struck about 25 feet in front of me. Then the wind picked up making my umbrella useless. So now I'm soaked, and shaken up from the lightning, and I'm convinced that God is trying to kill me. So God, I'm sorry, and I ask that we can put all of that bad sinning stuff I did behind us and move on. OK?