when katrina turned two

I arrived in New Orleans Thursday, and I've barely rested since. I'm ambivalent about the whole "Katrina Anniversary" thing: one the one hand, it seems shallow and crude and beside the point; on the other, markers are makers and, when it comes to journalism, pegs are pegs. And so many smart and hard-working people in New Orleans are making use of this moment to highlight what's right, what's wrong, and what's needed. The president is here already, I think. He's supposed to speak somewhere or another tomorrow: It will be hard to get anything across over the hollow ring of his promises at Jackson Square in 2005.

I worry that the piece I just filed for Salon.com is too downcast -- there is so much good and positive going on every day here. But it's true and accurate and I mean what I say about culture leading the way. The rains come and go here lately -- light, refreshing and utterly unthreatening. Then it breaks, and the sun burns piercing hot. And I keep forgetting to leave extra time to talk to people I bump into in the street. It's like that here...