As a conservative Christian, I seldom find areas of agreement with Richard at Metroblogging New Orleans; we’re probably as politically and culturally opposite as two people can be. But on one issue, I absolutely could not agree more:

Yes, we all hope that New Orleans will gradually become better than it was before the storm. (In certain ways, I think it already is.) Will it be perfect? Will it be utopia? I’m probably the wrong person to ask. To me, perfection has to exist in a bubble, and given the fact that everything is interconnected these days–informationally, electronically, meteorologically, and so on–that’s pretty much impossible. But New Orleans will continue to be a hub, there will be people living here, there will be Mardi Gras, there will be crime, there will be inequality, and there will be an ease of life unknown in most of America.

Also, I don’t think I’m the only one with these opinions. They’re pretty well documented elsewhere. Very few people–except some of the hippies who moved here after the storm and don’t know when to give it a rest–are still griping about storm-related stuff. Anyone who’s still here has to have made peace with it in some way.

I should add that by focusing only on the devastation and sadness that Katrina brought, in 60 minutes Chris Rose and Anthony Bourdain erased two and a half years of progress. The homes that have been rebuilt, the families and businesses that have returned, all the little triumphs that many of us have had, most of which came thanks to personal chutzpah and savings accounts–it’s like none of that mattered. Which is offensive and condescending and reprehensible, to say the least.

Yes. And thank you for saying it.

General Honore, who famously called out a reporter for being “stuck on stupid” is retiring. He was a real hero to many of us in the New Orleans metro area after Katrina. We weren’t just grateful for the convoys of supplies he brought in, but for his no-nonsense attitude when it sometimes seemed like everything was falling apart. After weeks of wielding chainsaws, doing grueling cleanup work, and seeing the media daily play up every bad thing while ignoring the good, watching the General smack down this reporter was a refreshing break. The only thing that could have improved that moment would have been if he’d been addressing Shep Smith or Geraldo.

The gruff, cigar-chomping general who led federal troops into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is convinced America hasn’t learned its lesson from the storm.

As Lt. Gen. Russel Honore gets ready to retire from the Army and hand over his command on Friday, he says he wants to spend the rest of his life creating a “culture of preparedness” to prevent another post-disaster disaster.

“There’s an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They’re not,” the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside Atlanta. “What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard.”

During his 37-year Army career, Honore commanded troops in South Korea and prepared soldiers to fight in Iraq. After Katrina, the native of Lakeland, in Pointe Coupee Parish, led the vast relief convoy that rolled into New Orleans during its darkest hour. The 22,000-member force was one of the largest federal deployments in the South since the end of the Civil War.

With a green beret cocked to one side, a crisp, take-charge attitude and biting one-liners — “Don’t get stuck on stupid!” he snapped at reporters — he impressed politicians and ordinary folks alike.

The media still is stuck on stupid, which is why most of the country thinks the real problem was a natural disaster instead of the Corps of Engineers.

Other notable Katrina humor: the dog walker, the Chocolateville song, and the blue roof Christmas village ranked right up there, as did the guy with the big dog, ugly woman, shotgun and claw hammer.

Added: Michelle Malkin takes note of the General’s retirement (and very kindly linked to PH.)  She writes, “I wish we had more like him in Washington.”  From your lips to God’s ear. 

I heard a story on local talk radio that intrigued me because it involved New Orleans, which is my home and my other favorite place to live – Maine. I spent about half my childhood in Maine and even went to high school there for a year. A club in a high school in Maine wanted to send some students down to New Orleans to volunteer. A school board member objected, calling New Orleans a war zone. Many NOLA bloggers are up in arms about it, and a New Orleanian responded with a letter to the editor in a Maine newspaper:

New Orleans resident speaks out – Maine Coast NOW – A Courier Publications Information Source
Greetings: Through a colleague, I was led to an article by Stephen Betts in The Courier-Gazette, where he reported on the Rockland school board meeting last Thursday night. In this meeting, board member Jennifer Daniels referred to the city of New Orleans as a war zone.

I find it hard that an educated person, especially one serving in an administrative role for educational institutions, could make such an ignorant statement.

New Orleans was hit extremely hard by the failure of the federally designed, constructed, and maintained levees. We have lost much of our population, much of our tax base, much of our infrastructure.

We still have our spirit.

We still have our indomitable will, our pride and our culture.

I raise my three children in New Orleans because I honestly believe it is the best place to raise children. They will be exposed to brass bands, amazing music, hundreds of years of culture, the best food in the world, Mardi Gras Indians, and a racially diverse populace.

We are not, as Ms. Daniels referred to us, a “war zone”.

All those things are undeniably true. And yet… as NOLA blogger C.B. Forgotston poignantly reminds us on an all too regular basis, there have been over 200 murders this year. One of those murders was a relative of L’s. Another memorable murder occurred several blocks from my house.

It’s also true that I travel around the city and don’t worry too much about it. And yet… I was on my way out to take some photos for a client a few hours ago. When I told my husband where I was going, he insisted I bring my gun, and gave me several anecdotes why. And I did.

No, not a war zone. But not safe, either.