Katrina

We don't watch TV, and instead get our news from the internet and NPR. But it's not as though we haven't noticed the story of this major hurricane disaster.

I haven't seen the pictures, but the words are bad enough. The story illustrates a few things, in my opinion:

1. People with money and belongings escape and survive a disaster for which there is a warning, and poor people remain behind to suffer.


2. Men (who standard lefty grammar would refer to as 'males' in this sentence) ... men are the source of violence in this world, except for the very small fraction of violence that women perpetrate.


3. Despite our wealth and privilege, there is nothing inherent to Americans which makes us different from other people in the world. When the power goes out and food is scarce, we become desperate refugees just like anywhere else.


4. This disaster brings home the kind of suffering that some of us, from our position of comfort, are willing to consign others to. How many abandoned cars in New Orleans have jingoistic bumper stickers on them?


5. The web of civilization is thin.


6. Good people outnumber bad people.


7. Stupid people outnumber smart people.


8. Bad men with guns have a negative impact on society all out of proportion to their numbers.


9. Racism isn't just limited to calling someone by the n-word, it's a systematic neglect of an entire people, built into a society so deep that actual bigots are not required in order to sustain the cycle. One of Dr. Lizardo's students sent her a case in point. You've heard that horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow. Well it turns out that white people "find" food in stores in New Orleans, but black people "loot" it. Honest, click here.


10. Federal government is inept and unimaginative in anticipating or responding to catastrophe, but particularly so when the Republicans in charge instantiate the desires of dim-witted, hate-filled Crusaders.


11. Aside from the escape of the propertied, this event serves as a good example of what will happen to regions of our country if a terrorist succeeds in detonating a nuclear bomb in one of our cities. It also hints that the people currently in charge in Washington have done nothing to prevent or respond to such an event.


12. Recovery will be simple, as soon as the factors and means can be identified by which William Jefferson Clinton bears responsibility for the disaster.