You do not need to be angry to Loot or be a criminal, just selfish and amoral.
In fact, they looked quite gleeful as they were looting.
I'm rather excited at the prospect of rebuilding New Orleans. (READ BEFORE FLAMING)
There is absolutely no need to fall into despair over the fact that human nature tends toward the dark side of decency... The destruction of New Orleans was tragic, in much the same way that the Twin Towers on 9/11 were a tragedy. Human life was unnecessarily lost. On 9/11 it was terrorists and Katrina was an Force of Nature beyond our control.
Rebuilding New Orleans could be a testament to the American spirit. Our nation was built by people who challenged nature itself to do its worst, and kept on going on to build one of the most powerful countries on the planet. The wilderness of our country came close to overwhelming settlers time and time again, yet they continued onward. The whole idea behind the colonization of this continent was an epitome to the spirit of hope that can be found in the taming of a new land.
Frankly, rebuilding New Orleans could become a testament of American unity. All we have to do is make sure it isn't rebuilt as stupidly the second time around. We have 200+ years of engineering accomplishments behind us. It is time we used that experience to design a city from the ground up. Naturally, the government's role will be in the construction of public infrastructure and zoning, and it will not be involved in subsidizing private construction. Subsidization of private construction would result in buildings in the wrong places, built for the wrong purposes... We've probably all seen examples of governmental efficiency when it comes to micromanaging anything.
Why, in the name of mercy, does anyone want to rebuild this?!?
Let business and industry rebuild New Orleans to suit its needs. Discourage government "visionary" interference in the rebuilding process. Remember Brazilia, the legendary lost city in the Amazon jungle. It bankrupted its country, it was a Marxist architectural fiasco, and nobody wants to live there.
What is our national interest in rebuilding such a place?
Lousiana's ports and refineries are the only things worth spending federal money to repair.
To many, the counter-culture movement of the '60's was a harmless iconoclastic tantrum in a prosperous nation that could easily afford 'most any luxuries--including a good time, rock and roll President.
The wise saw something far more ominous.
The omen foreboded such catastrophes as the New Orleans disaster.
It forebodes much more.
New Orleans is a prelude of things to come if the American people do not wake up, face reality, and reject the folly of the counter-culture movement, the destructive foolishness of the Left and the Democrat Party, and the decadence of Western society that has infected the West like the black plague and, unlike the plage, which merely devastated the West, portends its total destruction.
New Orleans is America's alarm clock going off!
And it's loud enough to awaken the rest of the world as well.
That is where the great moral traditions of a society come in -- those moral traditions that it is so hip to sneer at, so cute to violate, and that our very schools undermine among the young, telling them that they have to evolve their own standards, rather than following what old fuddy duddies like their parents tell them.
Sowell nails it!
America's greatest living intellectual strikes again!
A letter to editor I wrote to the Seattle Times, that they actually printed this last Sunday along side all the it's Bush's falt letters.
The massive damage to New Orleans cause by hurricane Katrina is most certainly one of the worse natural disasters to hit this great nation. The scenes being played out on TV are horrific to watch, and for us to visualize the cities recovery is almost unimaginable. But this is not the first time large cities have been destroyed in this country by like-disasters. Two that come to mind are Chicago in its 1871 fire and San Francisco which was destroyed by an earthquake and fire in 1906. Both disasters wiped out thousands of homes and business and left tens of thousands of people homeless. Both cities were plagued by looters, frustrated survivors, worries of disease, starvation and pestilence, and both had many doubters that the cities could ever be rebuilt.
Both cities were rebuilt, and grander than they ever were. So it will be with New Orleans. This is America, we are survivors.