Mardi Gras

BEADS, FLOATS, krewes, zydeco: It's a party with its own rules and rituals, some comprehensible only to insiders. But this year's celebration of Mardi Gras in New Orleans is also giving a lot of New Orleanians pause. Some -- particularly those who were evacuated from the city in September and don't know when they'll return -- are resentful that the parades are rolling. Many others are happy that enough of the city's pre-Katrina population and pre-Katrina economy survived to keep the ritual alive.

The costumes and floats should also serve as a reminder of what the rest of the country almost lost -- and could still lose -- when the levees broke and the city of New Orleans was flooded. Tourists and television cameras usually catch only the vulgarized, commercialized version of Mardi Gras. The smaller parades in neighborhoods off the beaten track have always shown another side of the city: the amazing cultural continuity of New Orleans; the city's intact, extended families; the rituals that have been passed along from generation to generation. It's no accident that so many great musicians came from a city in which whole families, and whole neighborhoods, regularly played music together. It's no accident that architecture found almost nowhere else in the country was preserved in New Orleans, a city whose residents respect the past.

In the immediate wake of Hurricane Katrina, many Americans were enthusiastic about helping Gulf Coast evacuees and rebuilding New Orleans. In the months since, indifference has grown. Charities that collected $3 billion after the storm find that they are now unable to meet the demands of the hundreds of thousands of remaining homeless. A Post article ["Two-Thirds of Katrina Donations Exhausted"] reported Monday that charities are still "swamped" by a disaster that will require many more years, and many more dollars, to repair. Many Gulf Coast residents, national politicians and ordinary Americans have all, at times, been tempted to give up the struggle to rebuild, and to move on -- elsewhere.

Mardi Gras should help remind all of them that it's too easy to give up, and too soon to abandon New Orleans. It's worth the effort, and worth the money, to rebuild one of America's unique cities.