Now that I have your attention:
40 Ways in 40 Days: Remembering the Survivors of Katrina
Day 27, Way 27Today's April 1st. I was going to write up an April Fool's entry all about how George W. Bush had announced that he was going to pull US troops out of Iraq and divert the $100 billion he would otherwise have spent on the war this month to rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Another day, I'd have enjoyed imagining Rove running around setting up the slick and vaguely creepy backdrop for the announcement of the beginning of the Bush administration's brand new War On Our Own Fuck-Ups. But you know, I just don't have the stomach for it any more. So instead, I have decided to observe the occasion by lightening up just a tad with a way that will probably strike many of you as frivolous, but which is close to my heart:
Audubon Aquarium of the AmericasNew Orleans, before Hurricane Katrina, had a fantastic aquarium. I know this because I love aquariums. I don't know why. I must have been to the aquarium in Boston plenty when I was growing up, but I don't think that can explain it. We used to be members at the Shedd, till we realized we weren't going often enough to make it worth the fee. Life underwater is like life on a different planet, and for me a trip to a good aquarium counteracts at least a week's worth of day-to-day Bush's-America bullshit.
I know there are probably loads of people on LJ and DU who oppose aquariums and zoos on principle. I understand the philosophical and ethical objections, especially whenever I go through the gorilla exhibit at the National Zoo in D.C. However, I think the gain in raised awareness of and interest in the environment and the planet is worth the cost, especially now that the standard of animal care and the sophistication and size of the habitats has gotten so much better than it used to be. At any rate, at this point, provoking the wrath of the anti-zoo coalition will at least have the upside of keeping the thread kicked. Don't forget to check out
the other 26 ways either before or after you flame me!
Anyway, my point is, whenever I go to a new city, if it's on a coast, I check to see if they have an aquarium. The one time I ever went to New Orleans it was to attend the wedding of a friend of mine. I drove out from Texas, where I was living at the time, which meant that I was one of the only people there with a car. One of my most vivid memories of that trip is of piling into my car with about 5 of my friends, all of whom had been to grad school with me, and setting off from the Days Inn or whatever it was out in Metarie trying to get into New Orleans to go, you know, party or something, and discovering once we got on the interstate that nobody had a map, nobody knew the area, and nobody had any idea where we were going or how to get there. Nobody even knew which direction we were supposed to go on 10 to get to New Orleans. While the five of them shouted out suggestions at me which were all pulled right out of thin air and equally useless, I managed to get us downtown--mainly because at some point I recognized, from a distance, the silhouette of the Aquarium of the Americas and realized we were on the right track. Later, when it was not so crazy, I went back and went to the aquarium. It was beautiful, though I could not help noticing that many of the exhibits were funded by oil companies.
Well, when Katrina hit, the aquarium lost power, and although most of the mammals and the giant sea turtle survived,
most of the fish died. The
aquarium is still closed, but they are trying to reopen, and they have launched the
Bring Back Our Fish campaign to raise money to restock the aquarium. You can donate to buy food for the fish--aquariums don't use that flaky crap that comes in the little canisters, it's much more complicated--or, if you've got a kid who would be excited by this little charade, you can adopt a fish. You are not, of course, really adopting a fish; you are giving the aquarium some money which they can use for whatever they want, but your kid can still pretend, because
"Proud parents will receive a colorful adoption certificate, a photo and bio of their animal, and an invitation to a special gathering in the fall for all Aquarium parents!" Or, if you want to do some
really inefficient giving, you can buy crap from their gift store--sorry, that's not crap, that's "unique fish-themed items"--and some unspecified but undoubtedly very small part of your purchase price will go to "help Bring Back Our Fish!"
Also, their giant sea turtle, Mydas, has a
blog. He isn't writing it, of course. But someone on the aquarium staff is blogging their efforts to get the place back up and running, and Mydas was the first animal they brought back after the evacuation. Here's their description of
finding Mydas alive amidst a tank full of casualties.
Anyway, that's today's way. You'd have to be insane to list this as Priority One, but this aquarium is actually one of the few things on the Gulf Coast to which I have any kind of personal connection, and so in it goes. See you tomorrow for another fun-filled day of lingering human suffering resulting from our government's catastrophic "failure of initiative."
C ya,
The Plaid Adder
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