Down in New Orleans today, they are burying the noted blogger, citizen activist, rabid Saints fan and local bon vivant Ashley Morris. He leaves behind a wife and three young kids, and they need your help.
Ashley Morris
Now, this isn't really "fundraising," and there's nothing tax-deductible about it, so I hope site will indulge me...
It's more than a little ironic that Professor Ashley Morris died in his sleep while on a trip to Florida. He'd spent many days on the road since Katrina set in motion the events which led to the closing of Tulane's Computer Science Department.
Rather than leave New Orleans, he preferred to commute to his new job at Chicago's DePaul University. If that's not love, then this is: his youngest child is named Rey d'Orleans, in honor of the city Ashley Morris fought to call home.
In the week since his death, there have been many moving tributes to this larger-than-life individual. This one's from New Orleans City Councilwoman Shelly Midura:
I wanted to honor the life and passing of one my district's neighborhood activists, Professor Ashley Morris, who we lost to an early passing yesterday morning. He was a friend to my office and a champion of his neighborhood. More than almost anything though, he was a fierce lover of New Orleans. He spent much of his time during the week teaching at an out-of-town university, yet he had no desire to move there. He preferred to commute.
To Chicago. From New Orleans.
Why would he do that? Why do so many others in our city do such things? I believe it was because Professor Morris wanted to be able to tell people, "I'm from New Orleans." He wanted people to know that New Orleans was his home and that this truth was not only conscious and deliberate, but perhaps also something fated. He seemed to believe that New Orleans chose him as much as he chose us, as if it were some quantum entanglement that could not be logically explained or rationalized. It was a matter of the heart and knowing in the bottom of your soul exactly where you belong. It was a deep yearning for a city he loved, cherished, and felt gratitude and appreciation towards every day, despite the challenges and the ups and downs of post-Katrina life.
On his blog only a couple months ago, he wrote about going out to lunch with his friend Ray to Willie Mae's and grabbing take-out there and how "There on the stoop, we tore into a whole fried chicken, macaroni and cheese casserole, mixed greens, and candied yams that tasted more like bread pudding. An excellent meal, as you can see... anywhere else, we'd be having lunch. Here in New Orleans, we were having a world class meal. For lunch." Ashley knew that any moment in New Orleans was unlike any moment anywhere else in the world, that typical days here are not typical days anywhere else on this planet, and that being a New Orleanian, especially now, comes with a special badge of honor.
And so I honor my fellow New Orleanian, Professor Ashley Morris. He will be so dearly missed by so many, of whom I am only one. New Orleans aches for him today and wishes his wife, young children, family, and loved ones its heartfelt condolences.
His fellow NOLA Bloggers have set up a fund for Ashley's family.
You can leave a coin for the ferryman in the tip jar.