Yes, I am ready for some football.  Saints football, especially.  The NFL made much of getting the team back to the Superdome for the opening day, and, frankly, I’m glad they did.  We need something to rally around after our evacuation and the sight of Ike entering the Gulf.  I rode down to the Dome even though I didn’t have a ticket to the game because I wanted to see the crowds gather and feel that joy of the first day of a sports season, all full of hope for every single team, even the Texans.  And the Superdome was crowded with folks streaming up ramps in their best gold and black.  It was strange, though, to find my way in.  The National Guard is still here–a chat with some Guardsmen informed me they’ll be here till Josephine figures out what to do–and they parked their humvees and held their machine guns at all the intersections, showing people where they could and could not go.  I was told I could go anywhere, being on my bike, and I thanked them.  I thanked them for the permission to pass through public roads.  I know some feel safer with the Guard on patrol, but I don’t.  And I don’t feel good about the quick normalization of militarized space and our apparent collective assent despite our ignorance of what these troops are here to do.  For a little bit today, however, I cared only that the Saints opened with a win.  Hope is alive.