This blog post is difficult to write – it doesn’t really seem revolutionary, so I didn’t want to write anything.

But it is relevant.

We in the U.S. seem frozen in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. If it was just the winds, big deal, it would have a simple, if costly solution.

But it’s so much worse than that. There’s the slow but total flooding of New Orleans, with some analysts saying the treasured city may be a total loss. There’s the unexpected destruction of the Gulf cities of Mississippi and Alabama – the damage of which is unknown due to impassability – much like Sumatra’s cities after the tsunami.
There are the tens of thousands of survivors who must be rescued – while bodies floating in the water must be ignored.

There’s more than the nature aspect, there’s the social one. There is the edge of riots by tens of thousands of people at the Superdome and the prisoners and hostages. There’s the knowledge that none of them will be allowed to go back to their homes for a long long time. There’s the monstrous looting.

There’s the known corruption of the New Orleans officials and their poor planning and maintenance of infrastructure as well as the weakling leadership of Louisiana’s babbling and stupid governor, a woman well beneath her office.

Besides the problems of people, there’s the destruction to our nation’s infrastructure – key to our economy. As I read bulletin boards I learn of all the little businesses up and down the Mississippi river who are out money and work due to the paralyzation of New Orleans – an instant recession for them. I slide into even deeper dread when I realize the extent of damage to our energy infrastructure at a bad time – 95% of our oil must pass through New Orleans – and so much of not only oil production but oil refining and oil imports must pass through there – and can’t.

That it’s all in one place is a real horror – and if we do not believe we can fix it in reasonable time – an erosion in national confidence.

Clearly this was something we were not ready for. There is some kind of culture of disbelief going on. You can see it in the looting, for one. And perhaps the bigness as GatewayPundit noted. Instapundit reported that the overhyping of past hurricanes made many people reluctant to clear the city. And now Val reports that donations are not coming in. I wonder if it is because of the experience with tsunami aid and the refusal to rebuild the World Trade Center as well as the mismanagement of those funds for all sorts of special-interest projects instead of the One Common Purpose of rebuilding – so many billions were donated and all that were rebuilt were giant bureaucratic fiefdoms. Gee, how inspiring.

It’s a body blow, not delivered by terrorists, but by nature. And our attitude toward it. Maybe it’s because already there are some thing out of our control happening. Our economy already is in trouble (look at the inverted yield curve heralding recession ahead) and this is certain to make it come faster. We already know what Hurricane Ivan did to our economy and oil prices last year – we know this will be worse. And so much more painful because it’s at home – where we know how complex things are. We are not too impressed with even our national leadership, as polls show.

Overseas, things look simple and soluble. Here, we know things are not simple. If the rest of the world doesn’t see us as a beacon, what will the impact be on world revolutions inspired by our example and actions?

Will they stop?

American Thinker has an intelligent essay on the breakdown of civil society in the wake of the hurricane and the critical need for faith and hope in the wake of this hurricane.

Where is our revolution?