"I am an American aquarium drinker, I assassin down the avenue."

I am often completely freaked out by the news from the Gulf Coast and New Orelans. I feel sick to my stomach after reading news reports. First, there's just the physical destruction. Towns, whole freaking towns, leveled. New Orelans will be uninhabitable for months, it seems. Twenty feet of water in places. Then there are the people. Hundreds of thousands without power. Hundreds of thousands out of work indefintely. Tens of thousands stranded in what is now some war zone, apparently. People dying of dehydration at "shelters." People carjacking vehicles so they can get out of town. Armed gangs roaming the streets, looting and shooting at rescue officials. THIS IS SOME BAD POST-APOCOLYPIC MAD MAX MOVIE! THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN, FOR REAL, IN OUR COUNTRY! See, I get freaked out. I just wonder, what the hell is happening? Why weren't we better prepared? Why didn't we move quicker?

"Tall buildings shake, voices escape, singing sad sad songs"

I hate the violence, looting, and lawlessness that has seemingly engulfed New Orleans. But some part of me (maybe the part that has read those sci-fi stories) has an inkling of understanding. One can, and should, I think, just ascribe some of it all (as well as the gouging and other behavior) as just Bad People. But not all of it. I think of it this way: I'm some poor guy in New Orleans. Maybe I live in public housing, or maybe I eek by on some crappy job and have my own place in a crappy neighboorhood near the levee. A big hurricane is coming and officials tell me to get out. But I can't. I don't have a car, I can't afford a plane ticket (and the airport's closed anyway). How am I supposed to go anywhere? So I go to the Superdome (where they told me to go), where 20,000 other people just like me have fled. But here the toliets don't work and food and water is running out and it looks like I've been abandoned, totally, by those who told me to come here and who, themselves, have fled. I'm angry. Everything I had, meagre though it was, is now under water. I've got nothing. This situation persists for a few days and I just get more angry and frustrated. There are lots of angry and frustrated people just like me, and some of them have guns and are heading over to the Garden District to get some TV's and china.

I'm not giving excuses. I'm just trying to understand.

There's a lot more going on in my head, obviously, but I just got a phone call from a friend I haven't talked to in awhile. It put these thoughts on a (needed and worthwhile) pause, as well as took a bit of time. Now, I have a student coming by, so I'll post more later.