NEW ORLEANS – Wednesday was actually a beautiful day here.
Sunny, slight breeze, temperature in the 50′s. It should have been a great day to be out wandering in the French Quarter, dressed in Georgia gear and anticipating the Bulldogs’ Sugar Bowl matchup with Notre Dame.
Instead, police tape lined Canal Street, a main thoroughfare of the city. Police officers were stationed in cruisers at downtown intersections. Portions of the French Quarter were blocked off by police barricades.
And, absolutely worst, somewhere, there were families living through nightmares. At least 15 people were killed in what has been judged a terrorist attack on Bourbon Street early Wednesday, hours into the new year. Additional survivors of the attack were fighting for their lives, according to Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill, speaking at a news conference held by multiple government officials.
There are questions that will have to be answered about how this happened and if it could have been prevented. At the tense news briefing held at the New Orleans Police Department headquarters, city mayor LaToya Cantrell acknowledged that certain safety barriers on Bourbon Street that were part of an infrastructure project from more than a decade ago began to malfunction not long after their installation. Yet, they were still not working this week, with plans to replace them ahead of the Super Bowl here Feb. 9.
You can be sure that Atlanta and state of Georgia officials, with the College Football Playoff championship coming up Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, are intensifying efforts and double-checking plans to ensure a safe event.
And those matters are all important.
But it won’t change the priceless cost that has already been exacted by the alleged suspect, a 42-year-old man named Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran from Texas who federal investigators said intentionally rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers.
Amid all the steely vows that all involved in this attack will be brought to justice, the offerings of thanks to law-enforcement officials, the expressions of condolences to the families of the deceased and the assurances that New Orleans is safe, two statements hit home.
Murrill: “Parents got a phone call last night, early this morning, that no parent ever, ever wants to receive.”
And this from U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, who thanked law enforcement and government officials for their work, “recognizing that, if it happens in New Orleans, it can happen anywhere.”
We’re left with our sense of safety when we’re out in public having been chiseled away just a little bit more. We’ll continue to keep going to games, concerts and festivals. If you’re like me, you’ll probably trust in the odds and security protocols and believe you’ll be O.K.
But we nevertheless have to live in the reality, reinforced again by a sickening attack on a street dedicated to revelry on a night reserved for celebration in a city that specializes in happy excesses, that we’re all vulnerable when we gather in public settings, even if law enforcement is present and safety measures are in place.
It doesn’t make sense or carry any sense of fairness. It’s just the world we live in.
I was among the thousands on Bourbon Street late Tuesday night, people watching with AJC photographer Hyosub Shin. You couldn’t help but notice the heavy security presence.
We were gone long before this hateful act was perpetrated, but there would seem to be no reason the alleged terrorist couldn’t have acted hours earlier. We were lucky.
The thousands who have descended upon New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl have all paid some kind of cost for this act of evil.
Many fans will have to leave because they can’t stay for the game, postponed to Thursday. Extra expenses – hotel stays, rebooked flights, meals, rearranged work schedules – will be incurred by those who are able to stay.
Extra law enforcement has been called in and an investigation will ensue, government expenses that every taxpayer shoulders.
Members of both teams who have trained for years, dreaming of competing for a national championship, don’t deserve this subdued setting.
The joy that all feel in coming together for a major sporting event has been dulled.
One of the thousands of Georgia fans here is John Arrington, a 72-year-old diehard from Lincolnton. You may know someone like him. Arrington is a lifelong Bulldogs fan. He said he never ventures out without some sort of UGA gear on. Wednesday, he wore a red Georgia long-sleeve T-shirt and black pants dotted with embroidered Ugas.
“I’ve got about five pairs of pants like these,” he said.
He was in New Orleans with his wife Deborah, son Todd and his wife Rachel. They were on Bourbon Street Tuesday evening before retiring to their hotel before midnight, long before the attack. He said they were lucky that they didn’t stay longer.
Wednesday morning, they started receiving text messages from loved ones reaching out to make sure they were O.K. They began checking to see if it was more than just rumor, which it sadly was. I asked him what he felt when he first heard about the attack.
“Well, kind of shock,” he said.
Wednesday afternoon, they were in the lobby of the New Orleans Sheraton when they otherwise would have been getting ready for the game. They’ll be able to stay to watch Georgia Thursday.
“The thing is, a lot of people can’t stay and it ruins their whole experience,” Arrington said.
But it’s not just those leaving, as he pointed out.
“And then some people are kind of apprehensive about staying,” he said. “We’ve got family members that are telling us ‘Y’all need to come home.’ They’re scared that something else is going to happen.”
The Sugar Bowl will be played. Almost certainly, it will go off safely, especially now with heightened security.
But we’re all a little further away from the kind of world that makes sense and that we want to inhabit. For at least 15 families, that distance is infinitely greater and will never be made up.
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