The year - 1979. The place - New Orleans.

There's no joy in this town today. Mighty Mardi Gras has struck out. The police are on strike! Parades are canceled. Visitors are not visiting, citizens not celebrating.

No one laughs, no one revels, no one is even tipsy, let alone drunk. Is this any way to begin Lent - somber and sober? Businessmen are giving up their profits for Lent because of lack of customers. Families are tightening their belts, picking at meager meals, afraid, without police, to venture to the supermarket, let alone risk a restaurant. Is this any way to begin Lent - hapless and hungry?

Of course it is. It's precisely the quiet, reflective way Lent should be observed. But before we chuckle at the irony, perhaps we should ask - on whom is the joke? Is it on the people who l…