Why Mardi Gras Now

I want to mention something about the seeming incongruity of a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans after one of the world's biggest natural disasters has hit the city. Some people have asked me if they are supposed to laugh at us or cry at our insensitivity in having a party at this time.
Let's see...vast sections of the city are deserted in rubble heaped as high as when the storm deposited in in August, about two-thrids of the population is gone and may never be able to return, abut 15000 people were drowned in the storm and another 2500 still missing and presumed lost forever to the floods, the levees that broke are still un-repaired and we are just months away from a new hurricane season, the city is broken financially and spiritually, businesses are operating at half their employment and service level and there is little to do here now except grieve about the loss of our city.
Then how can it be we now have this party? How can we expend so much energy and resources on it? Those are questions both outsiders and residents here ask. I'll try to answer them, or at least give some possible answers. One explanation is the old show business line that "the show must go on". that is, Mardi Gras is one thing that defines New Orleans as being different and special.
The flood waters may have killed our homes and businesses, but it need not kill our traditions. And Mardi Gras is one of those. It's almost as if we have no choice but to have Mardi Gras. Not doing so is surrendering again to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Another reason for having Mardi Gras is a practical one. It is a big event here that brings in huge amounts of revenue from tourists. We need both revenue and tourists, even if it is a one time shot of both. If only half the usual number of tourists now come to Mardi Gras, that's fine. We are about half a city, so it does compute.
And finally, Mardi Gras must go one because we need the attention we t will get from having it. Already a morbid curiosity piece since the storm wiped us out, Mardi Gras is an attraction the media covers- either as a disgusting waste of time or a triumph of sprit. Regardless, we can use the publicity form it. People will see how ruined New Orleans is, how pathetic it looks, how sorrowful are it's people as they force themselves to "have fun" during Mardi Gras season. And maybe Bush and his administration will be shamed by the spectacle as people all over the world see how New Orleans is scorned, kicked and forgotten by the U.S. government. As we say in New Orleans, "Laissez Les Rouge Bon Temp" (Let the good times roll).
I have another nominee for Most Stupid Criminal of 2006. He is an unidentified 52 year old Darmstadt, German man who tried to get a "refund" of $475 worth of marijuana that he purchased from a dealer and said was "bad" weed. Haha The disgruntled customer actually called police to report being ripped off an expected police to help him recover his money. But The "Drug Dealing Disgruntled Darmstadt Denizen" was instead arrested and charged with violating drug possession laws, after police confiscated the 200 grams of pot the man brought to the police station. I hope that guy was smoking when he did that. To think he could be that stupid...but then if not, that marijuana must have been more potent that he thought