It’s kind of weird to think of that one of the biggest party days of the year is one day before the religious observance of Lent… but that’s Mardi Gras for you.
In a kind of a last hurrah before a period of penitence, the Mardi Gras parties in New Orleans have become a HUGE deal. There are all kinds of traditions associated with the festival, one of the most distinctive is the plastic beads you will see so many people wearing.
Those beads are being added to the list of things that the activist class is calling ‘problematic’… but perhaps not for the reasons you might think.
There is a tradition that women will flash some skin at strangers in the hopes that someone will throw a garland of beads their way. More strangers means more beads, and some women on Bourbon street are seen sporting dozens of such garlands.
If you were to guess that the moralizing had something to do with patriarchy exploiting women for cheap trinkets, or a #MeToo hashtag, or some other question about the morality and dignity of women showing their bits to strangers… you would be wrong.
It’s not the dignity of women that has anyone up in arms.
It’s Dear Mother Gaia! What is to be done to protect HER!?
That’s right… the activist class was just peachy with all the drunken debauchery of Bourbon Street right up until someone took notice of just how many of those plastic beads needed to be discarded once the music stopped.
Despite a massive daily cleanup operation that leaves the post-parade landscape remarkably clean, uncaught beads dangle from tree limbs like Spanish moss and get ground into the mud under the feet of passers-by. They also wash into storm strains, where they only complicate efforts to keep the flood-prone city’s streets dry. Tons have been pulled from the aging drainage system in recent years.
And those that aren’t removed from the storm drains eventually get washed through the system and into Lake Pontchartrain — the large Gulf of Mexico inlet north of the city. The nonbiodegradable plastics are a threat to fish and wildlife, Enck said. — NPR
Throw something other than beads, you say? Anything in particular in mind? Why yes, there is! We’re so glad you asked.
Aside from recycling, there’s a small but growing movement to find something else for parade riders to lob.
Grounds Krewe, Davis’s nonprofit, is now marketing more than two dozen types of nonplastic, sustainable items for parade riders to pitch. Among them: headbands made of recycled T-shirts; beads made out of paper, acai seeds or recycled glass; wooden yo-yos; and packets of locally-made coffee, jambalaya mix or other food items — useful, consumable items that won’t just take up space in someone’s attic or, worse, wind up in the lake. — NPR
Bags of coffee and seeds? Yippie, I guess.
Paper beads? Uh-huh. Sure. That’s gonna catch on.
Glass beads? Wooden yo-yos? What happens when the glass you just threw shatters, or when you chuck a wooden yo-yo to a drunk from a second-floor balcony?
Can’t imagine ANYTHING going wrong in these scenarios.
But the one thing they are sure about is that the real problem in this scenario is the impact it could have on mother nature.
Riiiiight.
THAT’S the moral outrage in this scenario.
Clearly.
John The Baptist: A Rude Awakening Precedes A Great Awakening.
This timely little tome chronicles the politically incorrect ministry of one of God’s most effective wildmen, John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Christ’s ministry.
The abrasive message of repentance John preached 2000 years ago is still confrontational and offensive today — but it is also life-changing.
In our putrid, worldly culture that has turned away from God, this book is a must-read for every Christian.
Available in paperback for those of you who like the feel of the pages in your hot, little hands, on Kindle to keep it right at your fingertips, and as an epic Audiobook.
