Jeremy <listbox@unix-boy.com> writes:
> So no, you are right, it isn't the local color that makes folks
> compare New Orleans to the third world. It goes way beyond that.
> The local color just seems like salt in the gaping wound because some
> of the local color here doesn't help the image of the area.
Sure, I get the “salt in the wound” bit. I left NOLA a little over a
year before Katrina. I still love New Orleans, but the politics of the
city and Louisiana as a whole are, in a word, insane.
As far as opportunity, well, this is the age of the eighth world wonder:
the Internet. While I live in Lancaster County, I work full time for
Wikimedia in San Francisco. Before Wikimedia, I was working for a
non-profit in North Carolina. And before that, a start up in New York
City. Through it all, I've stayed here in Lancaster County.
And yes, I know that NOLA isn't Silicon Valley. There is at least an
order of magnitude difference in the number of local tech opportunities
available. But, in that sense, NOLA is an order of magnitude better
than Lancaster County. At least NOLA has decent food and music. Here
in Lancaster County, we've got the Amish. The food is no where near as
good.
So why stay in Lancaster? The political situation of Pennsylvania is
better than Louisiana. The local populace doesn't have to choose
between an Edwin Edwards and David Duke, for example. Finally, We don't
make the news because our representatives keep bribe money in their
freezer, because our mayor calls where we live the “Chocolate City” or
any number of other embarrassing incidents.
Life in Lancaster is dull compared with NOLA. But sometimes that's a
good thing.
Mark.
___________________
Nolug mailing list
nolug@nolug.org
Received on 06/04/11
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : 06/04/11 EDT