Most of you who know me know that I’m no football fan. Admittedly, I’d been resisting the Saints mania that had been building here, brushing it off as a silly distraction from more pressing issues. But on Sunday I succumbed to the inevitable and joined WHO DAT nation. After watching the game at a great party I stepped outside to find neighbors toasting, honking, shouting and setting off fireworks in the street. I couldn’t resist.
Down to the CDB and French Quarter where flags were waving, people high fiving, smiling, shouting, hugging, crying. Bourbon street as crowded as I have ever seen it. Oz off the hook. It was all overwhelming in a great way.
I feel lucky to have been there; Sunday’s victory and the ensuing gaiety was a real moment, watershed perhaps. The Saints victory, combined with the landslide election of Mitch Landrieu, the first white mayor since the 1970s, signals that perhaps the divisive racism that has so hurt this once great city might be receding into the past, as it well should. While the path ahead, for New Orleans and this country, remains difficult, perhaps now it can be tread with a renewed sense of pride and purpose.
From the Big Easy,
~WD
Other than the folks in Greater Indianapolis, everyone in the country was rooting for the Saints. Sports is usually a silly, bread-and-circuses distraction for the need-to-gt a life crowd, brought to us by corporate America and Madison Avenue, but this win was indeed special. Here in Boston, people came together and rejoiced when the Curse was Reversed in 2004, but we had never suffered a calamity like Hurricane Katrina which threatened the very existence of the city. We all hope that this triumph against the odds leads gives continued momentum to the body politic of the Crescent City.