I got into a little tiff with this woman at Lafittes the other night. I don’t remember her name, she seemed nice enough. She had worked for Amtrak the last 4 months and hated it*. She was shown around the French Quarter and Frenchman St. by some friends of mine who had met her earlier in the day and was convinced she was going to move here. Upon hearing my opinion of living in the city she immediately got very upset with me. I asked her if she had actually visited any of the damaged areas of the city and she said no.

“I’m not going to be a tourist of that.”

She was convinced that the city was flourishing and simply would not listen to another opinion. She wondered what had me so negative about ‘such a great city to live in.’ I tried to explain that it was this attitude she shared with the rest of the country that the city is a cesspool of crime despite everything being hunky dory here is what has me so negative. Her refusal to see the damaged areas even though she wants to live here is typical of the blood stained rose colored glasses that many wear.

That is what has me so negative.

* did you know that Amtrak kills someone an average of once every 2 weeks? Mostly suicide.