Lloyd Penney, Etobicoke, ON, Canada

When Hurricane Katrina hit with all its force, we were glued to the television the same way we were when the Challenger exploded (a sad anniversary a few days ago), or when Mount St. Helens redrew the geography of Washington state. The coverage of Katrina stayed with us a little longer because the storm was so strong, it drenched Toronto and area, and eventually became just another low pressure cell around the maritime provinces. It also reminded us that just because we are so far north in comparison to the tropics, [it doesn’t matter;] we can still be touched by that kind of disaster. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel came to Toronto, and tore it up, and changed this city forever. Check www.hurricanehazel.ca to see how Toronto, and indeed, the province of Ontario, was affected. (Hazel destroyed much property, and killed hundreds. Hazel doesn’t stand up to Katrina’s utter destruction, but we know of what you speak.)

Mardi Gras is less than four weeks away, and New Orleans is a shadow still rebuilding. Some say rebuild, others say rebuild elsewhere. Time will tell if people use sense or spirit; there’s good argument in both. I remember NO from Nolacon II, and we had a great time in the French Quarter; it’s up and going again, but things have changed so much. I hope you and Rosy find the old joy you remember on that Fat Tuesday. This place must live on in more than just fond memory.

This year’s Mardi Gras showed that New Orleans does live on, in righteous spirit.

The news regularly brings us examples of how the US sends millions of dollars overseas to help banish hunger and poverty. It generosity knows no parallel. Yet, when the US was offered by many countries help in recovering from Katrina, the response was an almost overly-macho silence. You helped us before; can we return your generosity now? This heart-felt offer to help was often rebuffed, and often in an abrupt fashion. Later, when the incompetence of the Bush regime and the head of FEMA was revealed, help was accepted, grudgingly and in near-silence. A Canadian Armed Forces task force helped with temporary housing and clean drinking water. They did their job, stayed a little longer than was required or asked for, and then left. Bush later did his clumsy PR job with public thanks for the help received, but it seemed to have been shamed out of him.

When I saw the title “Survivor”, I thought of that cubic zirconia of all ridiculous reality shows. What a stupid and abused phrase that is, reality show. Katrina and the evening news was a reality show; people surviving through impossible conditions and odds. How is a scripted show like Survivor more real? How is it more real than the experiences Dennis Dolbear relates? What about Peggy Ranson’s e-mails of adventure and travail? I cry for their losses, and smile for their triumphs. I do not watch the pap and nonsense of Survivor; after Katrina, I am surprised that anyone does. But then, I’m not into escapist television. For me, reality television consists of documentaries and the news. (Saw on TV that New Orleans just endured a tornado. What an insult after such an injury.)

Yummy Soylent! Just remember, you are what you eat! And soon, perhaps you’ll eat what you are…

Bravo to Don Markstein on his good words. For so many people, the character of New Orleans is a stereotype of good times, party, drink anywhere, etc., they know nothing of what New Orleans is all about. They know nothing of its history and origins, of the Acadians banished from the good farmlands of Nova Scotia and sent to the hot swamps of the American south where they slowly became Cajuns. (Why do so many people understand others only through tired old stereotypes?)

I think it’s been worded otherwise elsewhere, but Ditmar names the reason for enjoying SF that really appeals to me…it offers intellectual pleasures, perhaps an expansion of the imagination, an exercise of the brain. Like a muscle, it needs that exercise to thrive and grow, to learn to imagine and create ideas and images outside its experience. No wonder those with ideas and imagination are perceived as weird and dangerous in this unimaginative age. I have received publications from the Melbourne club since the late Ian Gunn was the editor of Ethel the Aardvark. I still receive it, which means I probably have more issues of Ethel than most of its members. (I try to remember to give my thanks from time to time to the members of a club that sends me a copy of their clubzine. I know that my copy is subsidized by the dues of its members, and sometimes, I feel like a freeloader. I loc those zines as much as I do any other, and I hope that my contribution has enough value to offset the costs of the issue, and the costs of getting it to me.)

If indeed liberal politicians need to get reorganized to regain the White House, I think they need to say that more than being Americans, we are humans. We have friends all over the world, and we haven’t treated them very well. We have a lot of wrongs to put right, and we will do that. We won’t lie down and turn over, but we will have a slice of humble pie, and admit our failures. And why? Because it takes true strength, of morals and character, to admit being wrong. America needs to regain its place of defender of the right, and not be an example of a superpower gone wrong. (I saw a report of a very popular Turkish movie where American troops in Iraq are portrayed as the bad guys. Ah, to see ourselves as others see us…) America must also embrace the world and be a part of it, instead of depicting itself as an island of right and morality in a unknown world of depravity. I honestly doubt that the Bush regime knows how hated they are in the rest of the world because of its acts, and if they know, I doubt they care. That’s the key word … America must care. Thank you for this essay, Guy … once America can regain its human face to the world, perhaps the world will hate it less, and perhaps America might begin to understand why 9/11 happened. British journalist Robert Fisk summed up the reasons for 9/11 very succinctly…see this link. He said basically that 9/11 happened because the East had had far too much of the West’s interference. Please read that transcript.

You owe it not only to yourself, but to your American compatriots, to see An Inconvenient Truth, if for no other reason than to strengthen any faith you may have in the decency and passion of your neighbors. Sleaze has owned America since the 2000 election. Maybe – maybe – its influence has run its course.

I am sitting here in front of my computer, wiping tears from my face. I teared up a little reading about Dennis Dolbear’s efforts, Peggy Ranson’s adventures, and John Guidry’s losses, and now I read about the death of your friend Boo. You saved the most powerful for last. I don’t know what to write, you’ve got me stalled. How could one not be moved by this human tragedy, and not angered by the government’s incompetence? Too many precious lives, lives of honour and sunshine, lives of honesty, were taken by Katrina, and many more have gone to waste through the Bush regime’s rank acts and vast negligence.

I will dry myself off, and thank you kindly for a publication that this time has been much more than just a fanzine. Thank you very much for smiles and tears, and much to think about and consider. I am certain the response will be worth reading in the next issue, which I look forward to very, very much. Take care. The discussion will be memorable.