NEW ORLEANS — It’s 3 p.m., and the streets in the French Quarter are wet from sporadic rain, but the local street vendors around Jackson Square still are working hard, trying to make a living on faithful tourists.
In two separate incidents, people have attempted to increase anti-French sentiment in a city so connected, at least in name, to French culture.
David White, 29, an information technology manager, writer and Mid-City resident, went to the Quarter to collect signatures for a petition to change the name of the Quarter, and last week he said it was a joke, according to the Times-Picayune.
But the last thing on local street vendors’ minds is whether or not people want to rename the Quarter.
However, some tourists who are in New Orleans to have a good time do have some things to say about the issue.
“History is history,” said Rollie Myers, a tourist from the University of California at Berkeley. “You can’t rewrite history.”
Myers said renaming things with French names such as french fries and french toast to freedom fries and freedom toast is like “Mickey Mouse nationalism” — making everything nationalistic.
“The real question is if the [French] president is not going to be invited to the Louisiana Purchase celebration,” he said.
Myers is referring to State Rep. A.G. Crowe’s resolution in the state legislature to take back the invitation given to French President Jacques Chirac to the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Celebration re-enactment in New Orleans in December.
This resolution is a serious action and was not done as a parody like the freedom fries and other such actions, Crowe said.
The war in Iraq may have been avoided if the French would have joined in on the United Nations resolution, Crowe said.
“This resolution is designed to let Chirac know he is unappreciated,” he said. “This action is directed at the French leaders and not the French people.”
Crowe is unsure if the resolution will get passed, but so far, many of his constituents are responding positively to it.
“It is inappropriate that he attend an event commemorating the strong historical bond between the United States and France,” Crowe said.
Crowe is looking for support for the resolution before the legislative session opens March 31.
Back in the Quarter, Lyle Diehl, who has been a carriage driver for two years, said it has been called the French Quarter for hundreds of years even though most of the architecture is Spanish.
He said he does not understand why people want to change names of French things, such french fries, because if people wanted to be supportive of their allies, they would rename the french fry to a chip like their British and Australian allies.
He said he has not seen many tourists worried about the conflict in Iraq or any anti-French sentiment.
“They’re here to have a good time, learn about the state’s history and relax and enjoy themselves,” Diehl said.
Leo Simikin, an ordained minister from the Universal Life Church who has been reading palms and tarot cards as a spiritual adviser for 11 years, said he thinks it is silly to want to change the name of the Quarter.
“That’s the same thing to say everyone in America who doesn’t support the war has to leave,” Simikin said. “Changing the name from the French Quarter to the Freedom Quarter just because the French don’t want to take part in the war is like taking away their freedom of choice, a right that every person has.”
New Orleans City Councilwoman Jacquelyn Clarkson said though she does not agree with the French, she does not want to rename the Quarter, according to the Times-Picayune.
“Although I don’t appreciate the French — they ought to be ashamed of themselves because we bailed them out twice — you can’t rename the French Quarter because of history,” she said. “You just don’t change history.”
But Marguerite Waller, who has been working at Mambo Sports and Outerwear on Royal Street for four and a half years, thinks renaming the Quarter is a good idea.
She even wants her boss to make T-shirts that read “Freedom Quarter.”
President George W. Bush is adopting new names for items as well. On a flight aboard Air Force One, he ate freedom toast instead of french toast Wednesday, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Web site.
Back on the LSU campus, still raining off and on, Randy Young, a business management junior, said some change in names is good, but a line must be drawn somewhere.
“I understand that to an extent, but some of it maybe is going a little too far,” Young said.