A whole lot of air blew through D.C. last week, not unlike the hot air that usually blows through. On Saturday, September 20, two days after Hurricane Isabel swept through the Washington region, leaving hundreds of thousands with no electricity, undrinkable water and many with no homes at all, I watched Mayor Anthony Williams being interrogated at a news conference by a group of mostly black residents in Northeast Washington. They wanted to know why they still had no power. Then I remembered Representative Sheila Jackson Lee’s recent comment that hurricane names were too “lily white.” She recommended that the...