At a time when American soldiers and Marines are risking their lives to stabilize Baghdad and Fallujah it's outrageous — utterly, totally disgusting — that our troops fighting to stabilize New Orleans should also be under fire.  Thirst, hunger, fear for the fate of missing loved ones, even the apparent incompetence and corruption of the city's government — none of this can possibly excuse the behavior of those people who are shooting at their rescuers.

Right now all efforts and energies must be devoted to saving as many lives as possible, and then to getting New Orleans and the Gulf coast back on its feet.  And let us pray for the safety of our troops.  But at some point we will need to take a serious look at how all the various governments —— local, state and Federal —— responded to the Katrina catastrophe, and at what lessons we can learn for the next time we may need to evacuate an American city for whatever reason — another natural disaster or, of course, a terrorist attack.

And when we turn our attention from rescue and rebuilding to 'lessons learned,' we must come to understand how it's possible that in the 21st century in the United States — the most powerful, advanced society the world has ever known — we can have in our midst so many citizens whose behavior is, to put it bluntly, sub—human.

Herb Meyer   9 03 05