I'm done...

[misanthrope]

You would think Mobile, Alabama would have some sympathy for New Orleans. Both cities were founded by the same brothers. Both have almost the same heritage and cultural background.

But, oh no, Mobilians don’t like New Orleans and most of it traces back to ancient jealousy. Mobile was the capital of French Louisiana for about 15 years until New Orleans was founded. From that point forward, Mobilians have been envious of the younger sister’s greater fame, her greater liberties and more refined culture. Even though modern American Mardi Gras celebrations began in Mobile, New Orleans took the idea and turned it into something bigger and better.

And you could always hear the pettiness in Mobilians’ tone about the Crescent City. They were always quick to dismiss New Orleans with its more liberal ideas and joie de vivre.

When Hurricane Katrina roared through the area, you would have thought Mobilians would be quick to bury all of the past grievances. Au contraire.

What I have heard ad nauseum in the last year is how great Katrina was for Mobile. People here can barely hide their glee. Immediately—and I do mean “immediately”—afterward, I started hearing all the spin. Everyone claimed it would be great for Mobile’s fortunes. No longer would Mobile have to take responsibility for its own economic tepidness, for its arch-conservative atmosphere that always chased the brightest and most promising young talent to other markets, for the xenophobia and provincialism that screamed at anyone with new ideas “If you don’t like it, LEAVE,” or for the sketchy infrastructure, the elitism, classism and abysmal educational system.

No, now Mobile would boom because, as the locals would repeat over and over “We’re the only major city left on the Gulf.” Aside from the geographical inaccuracy of such (unless Tampa disappeared overnight) it was demographically dishonest as Mobile is ranked between 115th and 85th in population among American cities and that hardly qualifies as “major.”

Almost everyone I encounter here is quick to blame Nagin and Blanco, eager to exonerate the Bush administration and pointing fingers at all “those people” in New Orleans. According to the locals, those in New Orleans were fools to stay for the hurricane despite the very fact that Mobilians make it a point of pride that “true Mobilians don’t leave for hurricanes,” with editors even bragging in the local paper about such.

Any sympathy at all for Katrina victims is always directed at the poor people of Mississippi, and praising the efforts of Haley Barbour and his cronies for “rolling their sleeves up and getting to work while the people of New Orleans are just pointing fingers and looking for the federal government to rescue them just like they always have.” Normally, there is also some addendum about how the national, liberal media is ignoring Mississippi in favor of New Orleans.

No one who expresses that (and it is quite literally almost everyone I come in contact with) mentions that a lot of people in Mississippi didn’t leave either, or that they themselves are taking part in political finger-pointing just with that statement.

Funny, too, how the sympathies I hear expressed always break down along racial lines. The black folks express concern for New Orleans, the whites for the “good people” of Mississippi and their former RNC governor who has been slinging mud at Democratic-led Louisiana since Katrina moved north.

These people here are reveling in the blood of those who died in New Orleans for their own benefit. They are quick to use it to rationalize their own bigotry and I’m completely fed up with it. You would think a place that was hit by Hurricane Frederic in 1979 would be wiser.

So, DU'ers, no matter what you do remember this: Stay away from Mobile, Alabama. If you know anyone who is ever thinking of coming here, warn them to steer clear. You have no concept of how pervasive and oppressive the corruption, ignorance and ultra-conservatism is in this place.

I WILL be leaving in the next twelve months and hoping every hurricane that spawns in the next decade draws a bead on this blight of a town. After what I’ve seen and heard for the last year, it would be most appropriate.

[ComerPerro]

1. You screen name certainly is fitting for this post

but I can completely sympathize

[misanthrope]

2. No one is completely...

...a misanthrope or anything else. I, just like many here, sat and fought the rage and tears in Katrina's aftermath.

[OwnedByFerrets]

25. .....

"I WILL be leaving in the next twelve months and hoping every hurricane that spawns in the next decade draws a bead on this blight of a town. After what I’ve seen and heard for the last year, it would be most appropriate. "

You know, its a fine thing that you have met EVERYONE in this great city and like S&G you wish to wipe us all off the face of the earth.
:sarcasm: I have lived in Mobile all my life (50yrs) and have had many opportunities to relocate and have never felt the urge to do so.
There are 1000's of progressive individuals in Mobile, and I am proud to be one of them. I am doing everything in my power to change the mindset here and I believe I am making headway. Leaving would NOT do anything to help.
I feel your frustration. I too, have friends that feel nothing but contempt for the so-called "refugees" of Katrina. But wishing horrendous things on a city and its people is not the answer.
Leave if you must, but Mobile needs all the progressives it can get, if we are to change the attitudes here.

[misanthrope]

30. Sometimes you have to realize...

...that some battles are winnable and some are a pointless waste of energy that could be directed in more productive directions.

I, along with other DU'ers who have lived in Mobile and left in disgust, feel this town is a hopeless cause. I personally feel that progressives here would better serve their nation by moving to true swing states and making their votes count instead of spinning their wheels in a place that will NEVER want them or change for the better.

By the way, I've yet to meet the "1000's" (sic) of progressive Mobilians you claim are still in town. I've known plenty of bright, progressive folks here. They've all left and have no desire to return.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I've driven through Mobile a couple of times, but loved NOLA!!

[misanthrope]

5. I loved NOLA, too...

...and used it as an island of civilization to get away from Mobile when I needed it. And if you know anything about the Crescent City's problems before Katrina, that statement lets you know a whole lot about Mobile.

[nosillies]

4. How interesting!

I spent the night in Daphne on Wednesday, and was watching a local newscast. They were talking about how the WSJ or some other publication had talked about Mobile's growth since Katrina. The newscasters were shitting themselves with glee. I thought it was pitiful. Glad I'm not alone.

[misanthrope]

6. It's disgusting!...

...The day doesn't pass that I'm not revolted by it.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Liberal In Texas]

8. HEY! Your CAPS LOCK is on! n/t

[misanthrope]

9. You're right...

...and that has absolutely nothing to do with how ShrubCo dropped the ball on it, or how they eagerly turned it into a political tool, or how people use it to expose their own prejudices.

Bottom line: it was a human tragedy, not Republican or Democratic.

[Texasgal]

10. AMEN!

Although...most people do not know that Nagin was in fact a republican and changed his party ties shorty before re-election.

But I agree with with you about this being partisan issue.

[TygrBright]

11. Wow!! It's not often that a new DU subscriber...

...chooses such an insightful and self-revealing nick. Welcome to DU! May I suggest you trot right on over to the Israel/Palestine forum and make a contribution to liven up some of the rather lackluster, desultory discussions there? They clearly need your razor-sharp wit and superlative communications skills.

encouragingly,
Bright

[Lars39]

13. lol

:D

[eleny]

16. !

:applause:

[bperci108]

17. Oh my....

:spray:

:popcorn:

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. We can hear you

Turn off the caps lock.

[TahitiNut]

28. Wow! You lasted 50% longer than I was betting on! Got rope?

Goodbye, farewell, auf wiedersehen, au revoir, rest in pieces.

Moran! :eyes:

[Kajsa]

12. After all the work MLK and the

Civil Rights Movement did in Alabama,
I'm sorry to see Mobile so corrupt and uncaring.

[calico1]

15. I agree. It's very sad. n/t

[misanthrope]

19. Mobile has always been...

..a leeward spot behind a rock in the stream of time.

There was very little civil rights activity here. White people would say publicly that there was more racial harmony here than in other Southern cities but in private they would admit that they "knew how to keep" their "nigruhs in line." Blacks now will admit as much, too.

Conditions for blacks were no better here than elsewhere in the South. When civil rights were addressed by blacks, homes were bombed and the culprits never apprehended because the police force was eaten up with Klan.

The public schools weren't integrated until the '70s, which caused race riots and an explosion of "private schools." The lawsuit that began the process of integration wasn't settled until within the last twenty years, now that much of the public school system has been vacated by whites.

Mobile had a Klan lynching in the first years of the Reagan Era. The racial animus and corruption in the police department almost let the killers off the hook.

There is still a LOT of racial tension and separation here. One of Mobile's last truly progressive community leaders (a school superintendant wunderkind who was brought in to revamp education and then told after his arrival they just wanted him for window dressing and had no intention of improving things for the lower classes) called Mobile the "last great plantation" when he left in the mid-'90s.

And corruption? In the late '80s, a federal court Mobile ordered to restructure the city government because the traditional one disenfranchised blacks.

Ask Hank Aaron how he feels about his hometown and why none of the many Mobile-born MLB Hall of Fame'ers ever retired here.

[Catherine Vincent]

18. Congrats!

You picked up a troll in your thread. :thumbsup:

[tnlefty]

21. And a nasty1, too!

Sorry, just had to do it.

[Debau2005]

20. I left Mobile 10 years ago

and don't plan to go back. My family lives there and does not understand my utter distaste for them. I no longer return for Mardi Gras or any other South Bama event, only Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I had harsh words at Christmas with my repug aunt who lives in one of the historic homes downtown. I reminded them all that it a 50-75 mile swing further east would have made Mobile the next Lower 9th Ward. Most of downtown Mobile is below sea level as well.

They are a sexist, racist, homophobic city that likes to throw their religious zeal in your face.

I was 3 when Camille hit and in middle school when Fredrick hit. I remember Fredrick very well. My family must not, because they are also part of the "I ain't leaving" crowd. When Ivan was bearing down on them I reminded them that they are selfish to not think of their other family members, mainly me. I waited in my Metro Atlanta house for a week to hear news from them. It took two weeks for them to get power back.

Your observation that Mobile as a city is petty is right on point.

They think they are a major city, yet their education system is in the toilet, they have few high paying jobs, and everyone is moving to the Eastern Shore to escape the crime, and the corruption. Not that the Eastern Shore is any better, they are just as bad, if not a little worse. They reak of "new money" and new prejudices.

I'll never forget my aunt complaining because all of "those people" from New Orleans had come to Mobile and now the Walmart was so crowded you couldn't push a buggy down the aisle.

You would be wise to move when you can. It is a part of the Bible Belt and it will always remain behind the rest of the country.

[misanthrope]

22. Didn't you hear about what happened on the Eastern Shore...

...following Katrina? A community center in the massive white flight community was pegged as a refuge for New Orleans evacuees and when the suburban locals saw the impoverished minorities who were slated for the place, they had it shut down and the refuge moved to another location.

By the way, the myth around crime in Mobile is just that. The crime rate here is directly in proportion with a city of its size, if not lower, but when all the white folks in Baldwin County and West Mobile actually see black folks in historic sections of town, they start chattering about how "dangerous" it is. It doesn't help when the only major local daily makes it a point ot create the same impression.

Downtown isn't below sea level, but is no more than a few feet above it.

[Debau2005]

23. Yes I heard

I called my mother who lives in Spanish Fort and gave her an earful. I also wrote a letter to the mayor of Daphne. I was horrified. For a community that lives on the brink of hurricane destruction every year you would think they would be more open hearted, one day it may be them.

My mistake, I was always told that downtown was below Sea Level. Government and Dauphin Street used to flood when someone spit on them, is that still a problem?

Are you from the area? I graduated from Fairhope in the 80's.

[iamahaingttta]

24. Come to New York City!

We are a city of misanthropes, yet we still manage to get along pretty well...

[RB TexLa]

26. Don't worry, we in Louisiana have always known what the rest of the

country thinks of us and that they never have and never will care. Don't worry about it.

[misanthrope]

32. Well, it's one thing...

...when people in Dubuque or Denver think that way, but it's quite another when folks in Mobile do. They ought to know better, especially considering how Mobile has benefited and borrowed from New Orleans over the centuries.

[Kailassa]

27. Katrina was what brought me to DU.

I was following all the news on the net, including a site the NO paper left open that automatically posted the emails people sent it. I didn't sleep for days, reading the emails from doctors in hospitals there pleading for help that never came, and emailing everone I could in congress trying to make them do something.

And not one of the Americans I knew personally gave a damn or would look fast the TV reports.

I'm in Australia, but I was crying and had to do what I could. Nobody in Australia could understand how the bulk of a country could be so callous toward the death and suffering in one part. That single event disillusioned much of the world about America, even more than the Iraq war has. When a country doesn't even care for its own ...

DU was the one place where I could find Americans that cared. Not that everyone here does, but it's better than the average on social justice issues, and there is a lot to learn about all sorts of issues in the threads here.

[mnhtnbb]

29. Hope you can move to a liberal haven

Let me recommend Chapel Hill or Carrboro, NC

I don't know what your circumstances are, but employment in the Triangle area
is better than state or national averages. Lots of universities in the area, opportunities in health care and technology. Public schools in Chapel Hill/Carrboro are the best in the state.

We're 2 1/2 hours to the beach and 4 hours to the mountains. It is hot and humid in summer (that will make you feel at home).

I was born in NYC, grew up in nothern Jersey, moved to CA in high school, stayed in So. Calif for 23 years. Lived in MO and NE for 6 years each.
I LOVE Chapel Hill.

Come take a look!

[misanthrope]

31. I know people who live there...

...and I get some really mixed signals about that area. People with drastically opposing perspectives seem to all like it. What in the world does that mean?