Will we pass the test?

Posted by R. Neal

The latest from NOAA: ...EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE RITA CONTINUES TOWARD THE SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA AND UPPER TEXAS COASTS...

The good news is that it appears Houston and Galveston will be spared a direct hit. The bad news is that the Port Arthur/Beaumont area with its concentration of chemical plants and oil refineries will suffer the worst of Rita's wrath, and a tropical storm warning has been issued for New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain.

Folks seem particularly concerned about the oil refineries, and the prospect of waiting in line to buy gas for $5 per gallon. Personally, I tend to favor the idea of $5 per gallon gas, as long as the windfall goes into alternative energy/transportation research instead of the pockets of wealthy oil company executives and investors.

But gas price disasters aside, there's yet another human disaster unfolding along the Texas and Louisiana coast. This storm is going to hit hard, and despite the lessons of Katrina and the best efforts of local and state officials, the evacuation does not appear to be going well. Traffic out of the Houston area is stalled, people are breaking down and running out of gas, and, most tragically, 24 elderly people being evacuated from nursing homes died in a bus fire. All of this is happening before the storm has even hit. And let's not forget the folks in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast who are just starting to dig their way out of Katrina's destruction.

This may be more than America is prepared to handle in the short term. We wonder why it is happening to us. There is evidence that the intensity of the storms may be related to the "mythical" global warming. Kurt Vonnegut said last week on Jon Stewart's show that humans are "terrible animals" and "Earth's immune system is trying to get rid of us."

I don't know about that, but Vonnegut said a couple of other things that ring true. First, he is quoted as saying "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country." And the corollary, "George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography."

I think we've witnessed the truth in those remarks over the past four years, and particularly the past few weeks. The coming days, months, and years, will be a test of the American people and our elected leaders at all levels of government.

Will we learn any lessons that make us better prepared for future natural disasters or something even worse?

Will we quibble along with Congress over a billion here or there for pet projects in our districts while the people of the Gulf Coast suffer in misery, or will we get down to business and find the money to fix it and get the job done?

Will we allow war profiteers to become disaster profiteers, or demand accountability and oversight and fair prices and fair wages?

Will we let developers and local governments displace millions of poor and minority populations with multi-million dollar condos and the attendant property tax windfall, or will we wake up to the fact that poverty and racial divides still exist in the 21st Century and start working for real reforms that ensure Liberty and Justice for All?

Who knows? Time will tell. Right now all we can do is hold on, watch and wait, and hope and pray or genuflect or whatever it is you do to your deity of choice, again, for the people of the Gulf Coast. And give whatever you can. God help us all, assuming She's still listening.

OK, then.