I sometimes spend time listening to Talk Radio on the way into my office . In general I try to keep it to sports because I am online all day long and clued into the news as it happens. Sports provides a nice interlude of things that I enjoy but in the grand scheme of things are not real important.
Since Katrina hit I have altered my habits somewhat and spent more time listening to the news or the bobbleheads around the dial. This morning one of them said that the hurricane has changed the US forever and compared it to 911.
I am not so sure that I buy into that line of thought. This is a natural disaster. Mother Nature brought this about, the earth and not man created the mechanism through which so many people lost their lives, homes etc.
That doesn’t mean that I am insensitive or trying to minimize the tragedy, but rather that I try to make sense of things in a different way.
911 placed the US on a crash course for war. It forced multiple changes on so many different levels. Katrina will have a very serious impact, but one that I see very differently.
I don’t expect it to hit the national economy in the same way as 911. It will most definitely have an affect, but I don’t expect the same impact. Now I’ll qualify this by saying that I am not paid for my thoughts on economics so it may be that I am just dead wrong, but ……….
Here is what I want to see happen as a result of this. I want to see a renewed emphasis on emergency preparedness on a local, state and federal level. I want to see an emphasis on people working together to help those who were hurt and a push to develop alternate sources of energy.
Now is a great time to really try and make an effort to seek out more cost-effective and hopefully environmentally friendly resources that we can use to power our homes, business and autos.
It is a chance to make the legacy of Katrina far more positive than it stands to be seen now.
Callie, I live in NYC.
Dorothy, you are talking about Louisiana and Mississipi.
Another state that has zero response systems is Virginia.
When the plane hit the Pentagon it took them ALL DAY to start the plan to get people out of the city….NYC is the place to be in case of a disaster believe me.
NY State is together.
I find it frightening that what is happening down there is happening after all of our emergency response systems were supposed to have been overhauled and to have been in tip-top shape in this post 9/11 America. Everything I’ve read seems to indicate that there is no coordination, communication, or sense of any one at all being in charge. Effin’ scary.
I disagree that this is just nature alone.
Many, if not most scientists who study the weather believe the storm was realted to climate change brough about by the use of fossil fuels.
Go home, plant some trees and start to car pool.
One more reason to let the Arabs take thier oil and stuff it.