Personal commentary

This week, my big focus was on the Superbowl.  The piece that I saw that I want to comment on is not a reading, but a feature piece on the city of New Orleans, and the New Orleans Saints.

Sunday evening, against all odds and against almost every sports person's predictions, the Saints won Superbowl XIV.  This wasn't just a huge victory for a team, but a huge victory for a city that, just four and a half years ago, was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.  The piece to which I am reacting is by a jazz musician (I don't remember his name), who plays jazz music on several different instruments, but also does a narrative on the history of the city of New Orleans.  He talks about its history, and the journey that the Saints - a team who has been in the league for 47 years without ever making it to the Superbowl - take to get to this place.

The part that hit me the most was when he talks about how the people of New Orleans talk about the different hurricanes by name, but Katrina they won't even talk about because it was so traumatizing for them.  Like they identify personally, and love to talk about how "the water was up to here on me during Andrew," things like that.  But Katrina, people were being helicoptered off of roofs and picked up by the Coast Guard in boats.  Their homes were destroyed and their lives were ravaged.  To see the Saints win a Superbowl just a few years after all of this seems like a big comeback for the city of New Orleans.  It was very touching.

I know we are supposed to mention the syllabus, but I think it's really nice.  It's laid out well, and I really feel like I understand everything that is going on - especially considering I missed the first day!  I cannot make any commentary on class discussions because I was not here.