@ Duck and Decanter

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There were two articles in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that I found of interest. The first, Irving’s Mr. B ends 21-year run, caught my eye because the “Irving” in the title was my school when I was in the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th grades. I found out some facts about Irving that I had been ignorant of prior to reading the article. The school was built in 1938. That was interesting. But not nearly as interesting as what the school was like in 1988.

Hired as Irving principal in 1988, he inherited a school with big challenges. Nearly a third of Irving’s students lived in Montana State University’s married student housing, so many children came from foreign countries or Indian reservations, some didn’t speak English and many were poor. Enrollment was falling.

As reported in Irving’s Mr. B ends 21-year run, The Bozeman daily Chronicle on Wednesday May 6, 2009.

I lived in Montana State University’s married student housing. My family was poor. That, however, is where the similarities end. When I attended Irving in the early 1950s there were no children that came from foreign countries or Indian reservations. Montana State University was then Montana State College. Or, if there were, I did not know them. It is nice to know that things had changed for the better. It felt good reading about how a school I had gone to became inclusive and celebrated the diversity that it found within itself. No, I am not going to tell you about it, if you want to know about the contents of the article you will have to click on the link in the title – or here.

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The other article, Governor signs red-light camera ban, was not as heartwarming. It seems that the Montana legislature passed a bill to prevent the cities of Bozeman and Billings from using cameras to catch motorists that run red lights. The Billings Gazette also reported on the story in Schweitzer signs bill to ban red-light cameras. The Gazette article gave the governor’s reason for the veto

Schweitzer said he signed HB531 “probably for the same reason I was against the Patriot Act and Real ID.”…”Government will always look for the easy way to monitor her citizens,” Schweitzer said. “I think the citizens deserve some personal liberties, and I agree with the Legislature. I don’t think Montanans want a bunch of cameras looking at them.”

As reported in Schweitzer signs bill to ban red-light cameras, Billings Gazette on Wednesday May 6, 2009.

Let me see if I have this correct. Montanans deserve to have liberty (personal) to violate the law when no police officer is around to see them. This is the head of the executive branch (chief law enforcement official) making this statement; it boggles the mind. Some things never change. Some two thousand years ago in Judea they had similar situations.

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.

28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Jesus of Nazareth as reported in Matthew 23 (New International Version), ca 30 CE

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I know that Irving still celebrates diversity. I wonder what the proportion of students that go to Irving (now) live in the married student housing of Montana State University.

@Unlimited Coffee

Opps – thought I had posted this last week.

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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced today, April 22, 2009, that the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal (MRGO) is closed to all navigation. People in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish are cheering. Many people (including Hassan Mashriqui, a storm surge expert at Louisiana State University’s Hurricane Center) believe that this canal caused much of the flood damage in New Orleans. The theory is that the canal (average width at the surface is 1500 feet) amplified the storm surge caused by hurricane Katrina. It worked much like the Bay of Fundy does in amplifying the tide. (Tides in the Bay of Fundy are often 40 feet). Of the 53 levee failures in the vicinity, 20 occurred on the MRGO with three more along the Industrial Canal which is connected to the MRGO and most likely caused by the storm surge up the MRGO. Significantly the areas where that MRGO and the Industrial Canal pass through suffered the worst. The MRGO flows through St. Bernard Parish (and south of East New Orleans) into the industrial Canal which flows through the Lower Ninth Ward.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is blocking the MGRO with

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430,000 tons of rock, with a base 450 feet wide, tapering to 12 feet wide at the top. The rock structure will jut 7 feet from the water’s surface and be 950 feet long. It will cover 10 acres of the channel bottom.

The Times-Picayune, Friday January 30, 2009, 9:29 PM

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The effort started last January and will be completed sometime this summer. I think everyone in New Orleans will breathe easier when it is completed. I will also. I am leaving for New Orleans this Friday to help with repairing the damage caused by Katrina. Two years ago when I was there to help I had no idea that the damage was worsened if not caused by man (digging a canal in the 1960s). I was angry then about how long the reconstruction was taking. Now I am also angry about mans contribution to it.

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Once again I will be sleeping on a church floor and hope to be able to post reports about current conditions in New Orleans. It will seem like old times.

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Just for the record: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains that MRGO had nothing to do with the levee failures and fought closing it. They were ordered to do so by congress.

@Community Coffee, Metairie, LA

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Last Year I had some remodeling done on my house. I moved all of the furniture from my living room, dining room and kitchen into my bedroom and garage. The actual work by the contractor took several weeks. After that I painted. There was a delay between the contractor’s competition date and when I started painting. I still have a bit of touch up painting to be done. Then last February I did my bedroom. This time I moved all the furniture from the bedroom into the living room. It took a couple of weeks before I was back to normal. Well, almost back to normal. I am still undecided about some furniture placement. I am also still trying to locate some stuff. It was a big mess and I was tired of it after the first day.

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Here in New Orleans (including Metairie, Kenner and Chalmette) many people continue to struggle with rebuilding after Katrina and Rita. In four months we will mark the anniversary of Katrina. Can you imagine four years of not being able to live in your house? Or, if you are living in your home, four years of shuffling furniture, four years of not being able to use some rooms, four years of coping with the destruction. Unlike me the people here have to earn a living while they are trying to get stuff back to normal.

On I-10 in New Orleans East there is a blue and white sign that advises there is a hospital at one of the exits. The hospital is closed. The water was over five feet high for 11 weeks at the hospital site. Many doctors in this area lost their offices and practices and have not returned. Medical help is 25 or 50 miles away for people here. In New Orleans East, Chalmette and the lower ninth Ward there are no open department stores. There are a couple of Home Depots. Many homes still stand vacant.

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Edith Byers (from Asbury UMC, Phoenix) and I spent a week mudding, sanding and painting in a parsonage for Covenant UMC in Chalmette. This morning as I drove Edith to the airport she remarked that not once during the week did we hear anyone talk about the economy. In Phoenix I can’t remember a day when the economy wasn’t the topic. I thought that they probably had other things to worry about. Edith wondered how the economy was affecting things with a lot of businesses already closed (or with reduced staff. I wonder also. I also wonder how people manage to carry on even if they have a job.

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Painting is done, now for the flooring

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The food is great again; the jazz and blues are hot. But, will it ever be back to normal here again?