Remember – we do not speak of the recovery of Bourbon Street. And we hardly ever speak of the 9th Ward. The first really did not suffer, and there’s not much to speak about – it was, to borrow the General’s words , “an inconvenience.” We do not speak of the second because it was and remains an embarassment. We do not speak of such in the polite society of either Wall or Main Streets. We should.

Embarassments have a tendency of becoming disasters unless addressed promptly and decisively. What magnitude of a disaster will we find sufficiently convincing to start doing rather than wringing hands? How many victims will make us pay permanent attention to the problem instead of lip service? There is something pretty telling about MLK’s “If you can’t fly – run. if you can’t run -walk. But by all means, move forward.”

“Railroad” does not move. it is bogged down in its own mire of despondency, hopelessness, and indifference to its ongoing plight. It stagnates, and has been stagnating forever, since that has been the major attribute of it for as long it existed. The fault that it still exists is not “theirs” but ours – the Main Street and the Wall Street forever preoccupied with all forms of haute couture offered to the rich to consume.

Assuaging our slightly tarnished consciences, we have made enough polite or thunderous comments about racial divides, technology divides, economical divides, and all other divides, but have done very little action: let us stop talking, friends. Let us do some doing.