> The city will be rebuilt, but New Orleans will never be exactly
the same. That is a great loss.
>
> I've been trying to count up the number of times we have been
there, and I think it is four or five. Our first visit was more than
20 years ago, when we drove the Gulf Coast from Pensacola to
New Orleans, thinking it was the only time we would ever be
there.
>
> A few years later I was a delegate to the National Education
Association convention and spent five days at the Superdome
and stayed at a hotel on Canal Street only a block from the
intersection of Canal and Bourbon. I had time to really get to
know the city.
>
> More recently, we made a trip to Lake Charles to pick up a
motor scooter that I had bought on the internet. At Slidel, just
on an impulse, we decided to take a little side trip and have
lunch on Bourbon Street.
>
> About a year ago, we drove to New Orleans to meet a cruise
ship, battling the rains and street flooding of a tropical storm on
the way into town. Returning from the cruise we started for
home, missed a turn, and wound up slowly cruising Canal Street
for a considerable distance. Sometimes getting lost can be fun.
>
> Then just a few months ago, we were on the way to Gonzalas,
a short distance from Baton Rouge, and we passed almost within
sight of the city. But we were in a hurry and knowing that we
would be back someday, be continued on our way. Yes, we will
go back, but it will not be the same.
>
> It takes centuries to build character into a city. And
sometimes that character is fragile. Under the guise of "urban
renewal" cities like Nashville, for example, have lost some small
parts of that character. New Orleans has lost much more.
> Howard


This is something that has saddened me deeply, among all the
things to be saddened about... I've never been to New Orleans,
and I always wanted to. I nearly made plans to my senior year of
college, but it wasn't convenient and I thought, Oh well, there's
always another year. I was wrong.

The loss of human life is devastating; the suffering and
desperation of thousands of people stranded and subject to
rioting and hunger is horrible; but there is a particular kind of
sadness that comes with the death of a city. The world has lost
one particular twist of flavor, and will never quite get it back
again.

For human deaths, one can say "Requiem aeternam"; for a city,
one can only mourn.