Garrison Keillor comments on New Orleans

“From the Star Tribune, Minneapolis:

Titled: "A City to Love, But Not to Live In"

Garrison Keillor
September 11, 2005 KEILLOR0911


Blanche DuBois said she always had depended on the kindness of strangers but that was before Katrina hit. Katrina showed you pretty clearly that you should never ever get in a situation where you're trapped and don't have food or water. Nobody's going to come. Lower taxes and less government mean you better live on a high bluff above the river and have plenty of money.

I like New Orleans but I'd never live there. I enjoy the streetcars and the gumbo and the little gardens behind the high walls in the French Quarter and the easy view of life. It's a city where you can find people to talk to late at night and nobody is in a rush to get home. I've seen a whole roomful of people at Tipitina's get up and dance like crazy just because the music was good and they felt like it. And once I saw Irma Thomas knock them dead at the Saenger Theatre at Canal and Rampart streets. She stood on stage and sang and made grown men stand up and cry out to her and I realized that my Northern upbringing had made it impossible for me to do that unself-consciously. I enjoy reading about unbridled high spirits but prefer to keep my bridle on.

The Saenger is near Basin Street in the old red-light district, called Storyville, where illicit sex was licit for many years and where jazz originated, the great American art form. The symbiosis of illicit sex and jazz has been noted by preachers for a hundred years, but both persist and people continue to improvise their arrangements and preaching hasn't deterred them.

Here in a neighborhood with streets named for the Muses walked the madames of New Orleans, Minnie White, Lulu White, Jessie Brown, Martha Clarke, and out of the gin mills and bawdyhouses came Jelly Roll Morton, Buddy Bolden, King Oliver, Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong, who was one of the most popular Americans who ever lived. He grew up in Storyville, got his cornet from a local pawn shop, played on the riverboats and in local joints until he was 21 and went north to become the Papa of Cool with his enormous white grin and gravelly voice and those blazing high notes.

Americans would be a different people without jazz. Jazz was intuitive, counter-militant, turning 4/4 marches into dances by accenting the off beats and in New Orleans they played so deliciously behind the beat and against it that, in the '20s, when people heard jazz for the first time, they couldn't control themselves -- they jumped around and shimmied and shook and life was not quite the same afterward.

I don't come from a carnival culture. I'm from the North. I'm OK with jazz but I've known a lot of really hip people who were dreadful to their own kids and I'd choose good schools over rockin' nightclubs anytime. A town that closes early, like Topeka or Muncie or St. Paul, is just fine by me. If you need excitement, read Flannery O'Connor.

The downside of being the Big Easy is that visitors feel encouraged to show you a side of themselves you'd rather not see, the blithering drunkenness and bare-breasted ladies and plastic gewgaws of Bourbon Street and Mardi Gras. You don't have to be Baptist to find the company of drunks discouraging and New Orleans is a mecca for alcoholics. Big Easiness, however, is not conducive to good government and the city hasn't gotten much of that. There are large sections of town where the tourist is warned never to set foot. The schools are wretched and services are lousy and in a high-water-table city where even high ground is low and low ground is below sea level, the flood control system wasn't ever more than modestly adequate, and so in recent days the Big Easy got to know George Bush.

You don't have to be drunk to be stupid. Here was a patronage appointee, the pal of a pal, in charge of the federal response to Katrina and he sat and waited to see what would happen and when it happened, he froze. As Mr. Bush said, he had no idea that the levees wouldn't hold. Truly. It's not how we used to do things, back when there was a sense of shame attached to government incompetence that costs lives, but it's different in America these days. Don't ever get in trouble, is my advice. Head upriver and look for high ground.

Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country.
last edited: 9/11/05 10:17:02 AM”

“"As Mr. Bush said, he had no idea that the levees wouldn't hold. Truly. It's not how we used to do things, back when there was a sense of shame attached to government incompetence that costs lives, but it's different in America these days."

I like that quote. There used to be a time when a government official resigned when his actions were shameful, or he was responsible, or there was even the appearance of impropriety. Government officials nowdays won't step down when they are in disgrace. And that's a disgrace. (Take for instance the Spokane mayor.)”

“You mean the time before Bill Clinton?”

“awww bacpac are you mad cause Clinton got some”

“Clinton should have been convicted in the Congress for abuse of power.

And Bush should pay a heavy price for lying to America, incurring 3 TRILLION dollars in debt (per David Broder op ed piece this week), completely botching Iraq and New Orleans and using 911 for political gain.

We should have no mercy for those who abuse power.”

“Before Nixon.”

“The headline of the AP story was "Bush urges confidence in his leadership"--which is like "Author says memoir is true" or "FEMA offers contingency plan"--and I didn't bother to read further. The Old Brush Cutter never got the knack of urging, and whenever he tries, he looks small and petulant, like a cartoon of himself. He photographs well in formal situations, and he is good at keeping a low profile when necessary, which is a key to survival in politics, as in boxing, but when it comes to the hortatory, he gets all hissy and squinty.

As a preacher, he is not in the top 50 percentile, and if his name were J. Ralph Cooter he would be hard put to find work in any of the persuasive professions. But there he is, giving the State of the Union, and so long as he refrains from perjury and tax increases and doesn't wear a dress to the Easter egg roll, he will probably slide along OK.

Of greater interest than the president's remarks to Congress was the report of the Office of Personnel Management showing that the federal government continues to grow under Republican rule. The executive branch now employs 1.85 million at an average salary of $63,125. In our nation's capital, the average is a handsome $80,425. Of course, the hiring of screeners at airports raised the total, but screeners' average salary is around $27,000 a year, which pulls down the average, which means there must be many happy folks in the higher ranges, assistant pooh-bahs and panjandrums and dukes of earl who are adept at taking a small acorn and weaving a seven-hour day around it, for which they enjoy job security, 13 paid holidays and 21 vacation days, and retirement at up to 80 percent of salary.

Not a bad gig, considering. There are mature gifted musicians scuffling for less than screeners earn, and farm families scraping along despite prayer and hard labor, and genius comedians scrapping for spare change. So a young Republican lady or gent could be tickled pink to land a job as assistant secretary for compliance assurance and get an 18-by-24 office with a window looking out on the Washington Monument and spend the day in meetings after which you will write memos of ingenious persiflage and obfuscation, like a cat smoothing the litter box.

Republicans believe in smaller government and deregulation, but it takes more and more of their friends and loved ones to not regulate us, and who can blame them? Washington is the perfect place for the slacker child who flubbed his way through college and flopped in business and whom friends and family kept having to prop up--find him a government job. Government service is a broadening experience. It certainly has been for President Bush. He has traveled to China and Europe and other places that never interested him before. He has come into contact with the poor people of New Orleans in a way that never would have occurred to him in his earlier years. He has met opera singers and jazz musicians and journalists. This is all good.

And he has met the families of soldiers killed in Iraq and visited with young people horribly wounded in the war, which would be a soul-searing experience for any commander. To see a beautiful young woman who must now live without an arm as a direct result of decisions you made--who could see this and not scour the depths of your conscience? And to suffer pangs of conscience even as you exhort the public to have confidence in you--this has to be an interesting experience. Your mistakes are responsible for terrible suffering, but you stand among your victims and urge public support for your policies as a sign of support for the people those policies have injured. This is a plot worthy of Shakespeare.

So why does he still seem so small, our president? In his presidential library, he'll be portrayed as Abraham Lincoln after Chancellorsville and FDR after Corregidor, but to most of us, the crisis in Washington today stems from a man intellectually and temperamentally unequipped to rise to the challenge. Most of us sense that when, decades from now, the story of this administration comes out, it will be one of ordinary incompetence, of rigid and incurious people overwhelmed by events in a world they don't dare look around and see.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0602080041feb08,1,6626977.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed”

“Does this make Keillor an extremist now?

A communist?
A pinko?
A traitor?
A lover of terrorists?
last edited: 2/09/06 2:23:57 PM”

“*Yawn*”

“Oh! The truth stings the eyes of liars.”

“This tactic of bringing up Clinton and his admittedly shameful behavior whenever the present shameful and damaging behavior of Bush is discussed is ridiculous.

Clinton was a self-centered shameful jerk in many ways. Seeing him stand there with Hillary, that shrill, self-centered power hungry wife of his, at the King funeral was revolting.

The politicizing of the King funeral by the race traders was revolting. Andrew Young said as much, saying MLK would have never behaved that way and would have been ashamed.

Bush has done real measurable damage. To deny it is dishonest. The Keillor piece is great. Thanks.”

“how many hillbilly's does it take to drink a jug of moonshine?”

“The Keillor piece is very funny.

There were a few great lines like: "Republicans believe in smaller government and deregulation, but it takes more and more of their friends and loved ones to not regulate us, and who can blame them?"”

“I kind of liked the imagery of a cat smoothing the litter box.”

“What narrow sightedness this piece has! It's amazing how this piece directs all of this gab soley at the president. I guess senators and congressmen from both sides are totally exonerated from this. And by reading this piece, that's pretty much what it implies. What a one sided, closed minded, worthless editorial piece of crap paper!”

“Trail Kicker. Since it was the editorial and not you that was closed minded, I have one point and some questions:

point: The editorial was about president Bush and his leadership because it was a response to his State of the Union Speech. You can't tackle every topic in one short editorial.

questions:
How many spending bills has Bush vetoed? Where has congress defied Bush by expanding government against his wishes?
Which party has controlled congress during his time as president?
In terms of objective measures, such as government how many non-military people government employed, what happened to the size of government in the previous administration?
In inflation controlled terms, how does government spending per capita compare between Bush's administration and Clinton's?
How does Bush's record on the deficit compare with Clinton's?


Yes Violin - the litter box analogy was a good one, too.
last edited: 2/10/06 12:08:35 PM”

“WTH is the answer, dammit!? I've been waiting all morning!


Uhhhhhhhhhh.......I dunno chappy, how many?”

“well, there's only one hole so go figure......lol.”

“Well Ped, it would appear that you think I was closed minded, good for you! I'm glad you think that and I don't really care that you do. As for your questions, I don't know the answers and don't really care to answer them. To compare Bush to Clinton is as ludicrous as it sounds. Mr. Clinton didn't have near the problems to deal with that Mr. Bush does. Mr. Clinton was too busy riding the tech wave with all of it's good fortunes and taking credit for it while getting blown in the oval office and making a mockery of the most powerful office in the entire world. At least Mr. Bush has restored some decency to the office of the president and we are not the brunt of every blowjob joke that comes across the internet anymore. Although I'm 100% sure you will not agree with me on that, but that is your opinion, and you are entitled to it and I will not stomp on your right to have one. Have a nice day!
last edited: 2/10/06 12:44:21 PM”

“As for your questions, I don't know the answers and don't really care to answer them.
TrailKicker67
1:42:50 PM
2/10/06

Thanks for your honesty. Which if any of those questions do you think is irrelevant to evaluating Bush's performance on budgetary and economic issues?”

“Contrasting the two administrations can only be done if we rewrite history. I am sorry but the Hypocracy of the Co-Conspirator standing up there demanding we catch Bin-Laden when they were offered him on a silver platter in the mid ninties is like Former Prime Minister Chamberlain complaining to Winston Churchill about the London Blitz.
Now I am the first to admit I am heartily disappointed in the way President Bush has handled the government growth. I do not like bigger government and I think than most of the "mainline" Republicans spout the Reagan line and then fall way short of execution.
But each time you study the problems you find Pres 42 heavily involved. The communication problems were a direct result of the Gorelick memo that put a will between agencies....why? well someone was sell in Missile Technology to China (who was getting the BIG ASS DONATIONS FROM CHINA?

And the examples go on and on and on.”

“Do you buy everything Hannity/Limbaugh say without any research at all?

Nearly every point you make in your post can be refuted with minimal research. You could start by browsing the 9-11 commision report.”

“I won't bother because when I showed you how you were flat out wrong on the national sales tax, you just changed the subject.”