Katrina

How sad that this storm and its aftermath have exposed something we don't like to see or even admit exists in America. Many of our competing priorities and underlying prejudices have been revealed, and we can see that much of what we want to believe about ourselves simply isn't true. Clearly some of us are expendable. Who are those bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans?

Interesting now how many people expect the government to come fix everything. Many are probably the same ones who complain that the federal government has grown too big and too powerful in our lives. Perhaps they are also complaining about the price of gasoline even as they oppose government regulations on fuel consumption and federal programs to develop alternate energy sources.

Now we are faced with a reality that will be hard to live with for many years to come. We will certainly survive, some of us, perhaps most of us. And I suspect we will rebuild. I wonder if we will learn any lessons in the process?