I'm beginning to succumb to narratives of decline. I resist this. I really do. Granted, I am of Philadelphia stock, a certain sort anyway, so I know in my soul, have always known, that everything is going to hell in a handbasket. But get up and go to work anyway. And damn that hoagie was good. Narratives of decline are easy. Too easy. So I try my best not to slip into that mindset. But damn. Some shit ain't right. I am not a liberal. My view of the world, of human beings, of history, is simply too bleak. But if I am no liberal, well, the Bushies are no conservatives. Their inexplicable mix of arrogance and incompetence is hurting America. And you'll forgive me if I cannot express confidence that the democrats have anything better to offer. This sudden liberal isolationism, this idea that we should pull up stakes and get the hell out of Iraq, baffles me. Not only is it wrong, it is deeply immoral. It is one thing to say we should never have been there in the first place, quite another to say that we should simply wash our hands of the whole thing and leave the Iraqi people to deal with the mess we created. It's too late for that now. Like it or not we must finish what we've started even if it means waiting until Bush and Rumsfeld are gone. My dismay extends well beyond Iraq and Katrina however. I worry about where we as a people are headed. The signs and portents look grim my friends. Please provide evidence to the contrary if possible.
Toward that end, at least one thing is still right in the world: In New Orleans, Molly's is open.
Molly's at the Market, on Decatur Street, is open daily from 11 a.m. to the city's 6 p.m. curfew rather than its usual 6 a.m. last call, and the owner, Jim Monahan, makes change from a metal lockbox. There are no lights - the beer is on ice that friends mysteriously manage to muster each day - but there are regulars on the stools.
"The place has been closed 29 hours in 31 years - it's a tradition," said Mr. Monahan, who inherited the bar four years ago from his father. "It's just what my father taught me. You come to work every day. We're hard-working Irish people."
