A little ways down the street is Preservation Hall, a hot, uncomfortable place, that is until the music starts to play and then NOTHING else matters.

I had breakfast at Brennan’s (erm.. well, okay — brunch) and that particular morning (erm… afternoon) they were hosting a wrap party for a movie that had just finished filming on location in and around New Orleans. So I caught a glimpse of the “Steel Magnolias”.

Anyway, during my explorations I happened upon a store where all things brass were on display, including lovely art deco lamps. Etched glass shades, with long strings of beads hanging down around the circumference. I had no place for them since at the time I was still living at home. Fast forward a year or so… after I had moved into my first apartment. I was working at a small law firm, and the office manager was really twisted. She is probably the worst person I’ve ever worked for/with and I’ve been working a very long time.

I decided I needed to get away for the holiday weekend coming up (4th of July) and so I booked a trip to NOLA (not the best time of year to go in terms of humidity, but I needed a fix.) I went with my lamps in mind. I knew they would fit the decor of my apartment, which I’d begun to furnish in art deco style. I went back to the same store, and was so glad to see they still had the lamps, I purchased and had them shipped to my home. The rest of the weekend I spent having as grand a time as possible in 3 days, which in NOLA was a very easy thing to do. When I got on the plane Monday morning (barely in time) to make the flight, I’d only had about 3 hours of sleep. The guy sitting next to me was in about the same shape as I was and we smiled at each other, exchanging the knowledge that we’d both had a really great time without having to say a word between us.

I still have those lamps, and they’ve moved with me from Queens to Brooklyn, to Beaverton, OR, and back here to NY and they still evoke fond memories. Though they don’t fit the decor of our current residence, I doubt I’ll ever part with them.

I am a dedicated lover of Jazz, good food & spirits. As the birthplace and epicenter of Jazz, New Orleans is one of the most important places on the planet to me (and many others). I do not understand how this country can allow this cultural center, this most unique and wonderful place to simply vanish.

Can’t help but wonder what Pops would be thinkin’ if he was still alive to see this tragedy. If for no other reason, we at the very least owe it to his legacy to restore the wonderful place of his birth.

I don’t understand the problem that some people have with the right to die. It seems to me any terminally ill person has the right to make that decision and come to terms with it on their own, in their own way. We choose this for our pets when there is no hope of their health ever improving, when the end is near for them and we know their quality of life is miserable. Why shouldn’t it be a choice for us as well? It’s the humane thing, to have the choice and certainly not every terminally ill patient would choose this option.

According to the most recent stats that I could find in the 8 years the Oregon Death with Dignity law has been in place 208 terminally ill people have chosen this path. That’s an average of 26 people per year.

Once again this administration is trying to dismantle the Oregon law, a law that voters there have chosen repeatedly. The original law was voted in back in 1994, and then in 1997 Oregonians voted against it being repealed.

I thought conservatives were for States’ rights? Oh wait, that’s right, the current administration is not really conservative. They haven’t conserved a damned thing. They are an extreme right wing-religious fundamentalist group who have hijacked what used to be the Republican party through propaganda and their spin machine. So they don’t really care about States’ rights and they don’t care about any individual’s rights either. They want it their way, because “their god” tells them so.

That’s why we have the separation of church and state in this country — so that religous fanatics can’t dictate to the rest of us how to live (or die) just because of their misguided religious beliefs. Having a choice means just that, a personal choice. If you’re terminally ill, but your religous convictions prevent you from ending your life, then feel free to go on suffering. The rest of the population should have the freedom to choose death with dignity, without religious extremists inflicting their twisted vision upon us. More states would probably enact similar laws if the rightwingnuts would stop fucking around with Oregon.

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Update 5-28-07 5:05pm: “From the time the law took effect in 1997 until the end of last year, 292 people asked their doctors to prescribe the drugs they would need to end their lives, an average of just over 30 a year. Most of the 46 people who used the process last year had cancer, and their median age was 74, according to a state report.”
(Source: http://www.komotv.com/news/health/7702032.html)

Also see: http://egov.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/ar-index.shtml