The recent events in New Orleans have occupied my thoughts all day long. Trying to teach a bunch of high school freshmen with the crushing despair of others echoing in your brain is difficult.

I talked to my students about when it might be OK to loot. We discussed what they might do and I think that I got through to them about what total and over-powering desperation the people in New Orleans are facing.

We also talked about how it wasn’t just New Orleans but lots of smaller communities all over the area. Towns and cities that may simply never exist again.

Then one of the kids asked about comparing this with 9/11. For whatever reason, I simply hadn’t thought about it. I still don’t know how I feel about the differences. Is one worse than the other? Is one more justifiable or at least explainable? These are macabre and morose questions and it really hit me and all the other students when we thought about it.

The one thing I know is that I feel more national pain and unity now than I did during 9/11. I don’t know why, but I simply do. I suppose it’s the ongoing months of death and destruction that the New Orleans area is facing. 9/11 was one great moment of destruction and death. Hurricane Katrina is a time-bomb of disease, death, and desperation that will last for months. Whereas the collapse of the WTC towers was the worst part of that event, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is only going to get worse.