I continue to be awed by the devastation in Katrina's wake. The property damage as well as the breakdown in civilization. I think we largely think of ourselves (in America and the rest of the 'civilized world') as above the barbarism that has manifest in New Orleans these last couple of days.
I know I do.
It's depressing to think we're all one big disaster away from living a third world kind of life. A life where gangs of thugs - I keep picturing cave men - wander around taking whatever they want, raping and pillaging. How quickly our social fabric shreds.
I know that's not the only story, and in reality it's really a small part of the bigger picture. The much bigger story is the one where people are digging deep to help strangers who are their brothers and sisters in this time of need. That's the big story and the one that will absolutely win out.
And yet, I can't get the other story out of my mind. It makes me wish I was a gun owner. Because when you find yourself in a jungle surrounded by vicious animals there's nothing else that's quite so effective at helping you protect your family and your property.
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UPDATE (29 Sept)
I'm glad to hear that things in New Orleans were not so barbaric as they were portrayed at the time, but I'm frankly furious that better information wasn't available from the MSM - and from my trusted bloggers.
This was a situation where bloggers could only do so much. There was no power, no phones, no cells in the heart of the devastation. This was a situation where it was up to the MSM to get people in there, talk to people on the ground, and find out what was really happening. Instead they relied on 2nd, 3rd, and nth hand accounts that turned ou to be completely unreliable. It was essentially a game of post office presented as fact.
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