NEW ORLEANS (AP) — She ran around in silver sparkling shoes, her faux chainmail tunic shimmering in the freezing breeze, maneuvering horses made of paper mâché, a giant green dragon, and sheep constructed from milk cartons. Antoinette de Alteriis was preparing with hundreds of others to put on the Joan of Arc parade, a joyous, freewheeling kickoff to Carnival season. Just a few blocks away, people wept and laid flowers and crosses at the site of a horrific truck attack that killed 14 people only six days earlier.
A memorial to the dead stretched for half a block. “That’s a hard thing. How do you reconcile that with having a parade?” de Alteriis said.
“Here’s how we reconcile it: We chose hope.” Countless times in the past week, politicians and outsiders have praised the city for its ability to bounce back. New Orleans has faced tragedy again and again, perhaps more than any other American place.
Locals wince when people praise the city’s “resilience.” They say they're exhausted at being asked to endure the systemic problems and inequities and government failures . Mark Schettler, a veteran bartender, said he prefers to think of this parade, and all the ones that will come after it, as an act of defiance that inspires others to follow, to act.
That, he said, is what the city needs most right now. “We’re so sick and tired of having to be resilient. How about for once things just work?" Schettler said.
“But as long as I have two middle fingers I wil.
