stuff i think

that time of year...

On September 11, 2001, a plumber stood in our basement brushing his forehead with the back of a dirty hand. "This is unbelievable. Who would have thought this could happen?" The ironic thing is that it was 8:30 AM - before we'd heard of anything regarding terrorist attacks. He was describing the unlikelihood of our water softer imploding, pumping resin through the water lines all the way to every sink and faucet in the house. An hour later, we were saying the same thing about NYC. And then the Pentagon. And a flight over Pennsylvania.

I read somewhere online last night that FEMA had a Disaster Preparedness Conference some time in August of 2001 and they started the conference with the announcement that the three things they needed to prepare for were a terrorist attack on New York City, a hurricane in New Orleans, and a large scale earthquake in Los Angeles. Two down, one to go, and I'm guessing we're not much better prepared than we were then.

I've also been watching the villianization of local, regional and national officials, primarily by one another. This disaster in New Orleans is an enigma to us because we don't have a clear enemy to blame. On 9.11.01, Al Quada provided us with a distinct - if elusive - villan. Katrina has not been so kind. We're left hating one another, because surely we must blame someone.