Crescent City. The City that Care Forgot. Sweet Lady Gumbo. Whatever you choose to call it, New Orleans is a unique city. More than 200 years of French, Spanish and Caribbean influence have molded and shaped the city that has given us succulent red beans and rice, jazz, Cafe du Monde and Bourbon Street (not to mention all the festivities associated with it). There is no city quite like it in America.

Which is why the barrage of images of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath is so gut-wrenching. At the time I write this, 80 percent of the city has been flooded and the Superdome stands scarred from the powerful winds that ripped off sections of the roof.

When the levees that have historically shielded New Orleans from being flooded failed, I felt a deep, heavy sense of grief-as a native New Orleanean, I understood the importance of the system of pumps, levees and canals that help keep the city, which lies below sea level, dry. Now I see the damage and devastation, and mourn my fellow New Orleaneans who lost their lives, as well as the centuries of history that could be forever lost as the water continues to rise.

As jazz bars get soaked away, looters plunder the downtown area, and people lay stranded on rooftops with no power, food or drinkable water, one ponders the lessons to be learned from Katrina-hurricanes are incredibly unpredictable and should not be underestimated.

We found that out when Katrina, then barely a Category 1 storm, hit us here in South Florida. Also, New Orleans’ system of pumps and levees, which as we’ve seen are vital to the city’s existence, was in dire need of being upgraded-now, more than ever, and definitely too late, do we realize this.

The Great City of New Orleans will no doubt rise from the waters and continue to serve a useful purpose as a major seaport and tourist destination. But more than likely, it will emerge as a vastly different city-if not physically, then psychologically. The city and her people will not forget the day Katrina came knocking and shook the city to its core-but if anyone can pull through and move beyond this disaster with the good spirits and mental stamina needed, the fine people in New Orleans can.

We do call it “The Big Easy,” after all.

Jay Rooney can be contacted at j.rooney@umiami.edu.

Don’t worry; this column will be devoid of anti-Greek sentiment or caustic retribution at social flaws. Instead, I want to call attention to the crippling of one of the University’s oldest residents: the large banyan tree that once stood proudly beside “the Rock.”

Now, you may be asking with aloof indifference, “Why should I care or even acknowledge some tree?” Because that tree was a symbol to many students, and to stare as it was prostrated and then look in disbelief as it was risen again, this time as a shriveled shell of what it once was, has left an impact.

It may be blasphemy, or even sacrilegious to say, but that shrub between Memorial and Ashe that is supposedly our spirit tree is garbage and outright laughable. The tree which gives shade to the honorable members of the Clan of Iron Arrow and its pedestal was truly the spirit tree. Day after day that tree has stood, as a representation of our University’s strength and might, its grandeur and splendor, a representation of the beauty and majesty that is the University of Miami. It’s now gone.

Perhaps they’ll replant it, and nurture it until it grows back to what it once was. How long until that day comes? By then we’ll all be gone, even the freshmen now, who will one day be super-super-super-seniors. As someone who transferred from a college that looked like a concrete labyrinth, the greenery of the Coral Gables campus is one of the things that makes UM, UM. As I walk through campus, I cannot help but feel disheartened, for many of the trees have fallen victim to what we thought would be a weak thunderstorm but later turned out to be a destroyer. None of those trees has made quite an impact as the guardian of the UC.

That tree is as much a part of this University as is Ashe, Merrick, the Rat or even the University Center. Just as much as you have spirit for the walls, roofs, desks and teams that make up this institution, likewise you should feel it for that tree. I do not ask for a call to arms, or any sort of social movement. I solely ask that all of you take a moment and think about what it meant, look at it however you like, whether it be symbolically, or physically because it gave you shade. As long as you realize that the University has taken a great loss at the hands of Katrina, and that loss was the great tree at the rock, my spirit tree.

Jovanni Bello can be contacted at j.bello2@umiami.edu.

As Tropical Storm Katrina churned toward South Florida with the speed of an Astrovan stuck in neutral, hundreds of doe-eyed freshmen braced for the worst.

They would be stuck in the dorms.

To which my only response would be: Thank the powers that be that I’m not an RA again this year.

Because, if I had to be a resident assistant at Hecht-or any of the other residential colleges, for that matter-I would be given, to put mildly, the not-so-enviable task of maintaining sanity amongst a hodgepodge of teenagers, few of whom: a) have experienced a hurricane b) wanted to be locked up during their first week on campus, and c) were sober.

Freshmen, thank your lucky stars that these resident assistants were working ’round the clock, at a little less than $30 a week, to ensure the collective tranquility of our student body. To better appreciate their hard work, look no further than other facets of our community to see how exactly a storm of this magnitude could be mishandled.

Take, for example, MTV. While many of us struggled to find ice, air conditioning or light, the folks over at Music Television decided that the show must go on for their annual-or is it monthly?-Music-or is it Movie?-Awards, enlisting the help, or harm, of local police officers. And, thanks to a combination of stupidity and someone shooting Suge Knight in the leg, (which, so long as Suge knows who shot him, can also be classified as stupidity) dozens of Miami’s finest barricaded I-95 and every downtown street to ensure that no one un-famous could prevent Green Day from getting the seven awards they surely deserved.

But I won’t let MTV take all the blame…just the majority. Hell, maybe I’m just mad that I didn’t have cable so I couldn’t watch the damn show. I’ll blame that on BellSouth, which on Saturday reconnected cable to about 21,000 homes, according to the Miami Herald (compared to FP&L reconnecting power to about 300,000-plus homes). It’s that kind of snail-like pace that reminds you why it takes 11 weeks to get your cable fixed when there isn’t a hurricane.

Lastly, let us not forget the school’s administration, including President Shalala, whose ability to keep us uninformed throughout the process has made for an especially hectic acclimation to the school year. The school’s decision to send out an email at 5:37 p.m. on Monday night announcing the school’s re-opening for the following day, knowing well that many students living off campus had few options in checking their accounts so late in the afternoon, seemed in stark contrast with President Shalala’s heartfelt promise sent just seven hours prior: “For the future, we will find a way to remain nimble in our decision-making as weather forecasts and conditions change. We…will always think of your safety first.”

Sure thing, President Shalala. Starting now?

Ben Minkus can be contacted at b.minkus@umiami.edu.

Children and teens will have to wait until they turn 18 before they can get their dose of virtual, videogame sex, but the killing of people and fantasy creatures rages on.

This past summer, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game had its rating changed from “Mature” to “Adults Only.” The new rating implicates that no one under the age of 18 is allowed to purchase the game. Select retailers have already removed the popular game and its new rating from their shelves.

This comes in the aftermath of an Internet modification that enables players to enter an otherwise hidden sex scene and minigame. The principal character then engages in sexual positions with all his clothes while the woman is naked.

Amid the outcry over a sex scene, obtainable only through the process of Internet downloading, Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Joseph Lieberman voiced their outrage with Rockstar’s video game. Despite the graphic violence of the game, which allows players to engage in brutal deaths, it took a secret hack-job of sexual pornography for Capitol Hill to denounce the game.

Are censors trying to make an example out of GTA: San Andreas? While this game and other violent games flood the retail markets, in his New York Times op-ed (7/22), Thomas Friedman describes the distribution of Islamgames at the Iqra Learning Center in Leeds, England:

In the game “Ummah Defense I”, the world has “finally united under the Banner of Islam in 2114, until a revolt by disbelievers. The player’s goal is to seek out and destroy violence against others.” This game further divides the ideological differences between Islam and the Western world, and it may be Capitol Hill’s next biggest concern.

With sexually explicit porn sites a mouse click away and virtual violence role-playing at our hands on Xbox, PS2 and other game consoles, what are we trying to protect our children against? From the explicit and verbal violence in movies to music, it usually takes an act of juvenile violence before someone notices. If we want to stop future damage, perhaps politicians need to sit and play GTA or a similar game for themselves.

Now that the “Adults Only” rating is used, no longer will the images of sex drift into children’s and teens’ minds while playing a particular video game. Children are creative; they will find it elsewhere. Let us hope all the uncensored gun shooting in video games does not make a child a better marksman or trigger some mental imbalance causing a rampage shooting accident.

Censors and Senators Clinton and Lieberman are sending gray messages in a world of black, white and red violence. It is unrealistic to believe that we can safeguard the youth culture from entertainment violence, but we fail at making the minor improvements where we can. It was not until a modified sex clip was attacked that the scarlet “AO” was embroidered on boxes of GTA: San Andreas. The killing of police officers, women and thugs had previously warranted the playability by “mature” users.

A double standard lurks in the country, giving life to violence and death to sex. In a country that favors war as the end-all solution to conflict, it is no surprise that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came under heat for its hidden sex content rather than its violent game play. As for its gun-slinging, civilian-killing protagonist, he is no longer allowed to have intercourse. Sex is dirty. Killing is tolerated.

Sam Rega can be contacted at s.rega@umiami.edu.