The rebuilding

A controversial thought: why are we rebuilding New Orleans? As ocean temperatures rise, and hurricanes become more prevalent, whey are we re-populating a city that lies below sea level, and needs huge, expensive levies to keep the water back, even when the weather is normal?

The answer, of course, is that the city is an amazing and totally unique cultural mecca, and that it's home to many people. If the city hadn't been rebuilt, though, I'd imagine many of the artists would start their own little musical and artistic communities in the towns they entered. Areas called "little New Orleans" would pop up in major cities all over the area. Maybe new musicians would thrive, not having to compete with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and such when tourists came around. Still, many feel that something would be lost.

And why are residents returning? Some want to rebuild their same house on the same lot, even when the surrounding neighborhoods are destroyed, and all the neighbors different. Why is it still "home" to them? To me, a place is all about the people, the community, the culture, not the specific coordinates. It reminds me somehow of the Palestinian families that ache to have a very certain piece of land (that had been in the family for centuries) restored to them. Or Israel's strangling grip on every inch of its "promised land." Both peoples have suffered great injustices and deserve to have a place of comfort - but the land is so soiled with blood that it can't provide much in the way of milk and honey. Why do people and governments even own land at all? It doesn't seem ownable to me. It's earth, soil, the stuff we're made of. We're far more transient than we'd like to think.