A Bitter Sadness
August 31st, 2005 8:21 pm

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.

Posted in National Events by Alex Ezell
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James
September 1st, 2005 10:39 am

Interesting to note: prior to 9/11, FEMA produced a report that said the top three disasters facing the United States were an attack on New York City, a flood in New Orleans, and an earthquake in San Francisco. Here’s hoping that the third of those ‘predictions’ (?) never happens.

Mark
September 1st, 2005 7:11 pm

My heart aches for those that did not have the money to fill up their cars with overpriced gas to drive away. One lady said it was the end of the month and she was waiting for her next check. She litterally could not put gas in her car. Her apartment complex is now gone.

I guess like 9-11, the people directly affected were acosted by an event completely out of their control.

One event, you are hoping on the hearts of ordinary people to help out. The other, you had to hope that politicans would make sense of it and protect us. Something tells me to bet on the common man.

Random Person
September 4th, 2005 11:55 pm

I live in NYC. 9/11 was not one great moment of death and destruction. There was months of pain and suffering for people in this city. People here are still suffering. Just because it isn’t physical doesn’t mean it isn’t there. The city is still feeling the loss of those towers…economically and otherwise. The constant level of fear and alert that we in NY are put on isn’t something to dismiss. We keep doing our jobs and having fun but that’s not without constantly having the thought in the back of our minds that we’re in danger.

I would go even further to state that the collapse of the twin towers started a series of horrible events. What came after it = the hunt for Osama which turned into the hunt for Saddam which lead to the war…Because of 9/11 and because of the war, New Orleans levee system was not built up to withstand hurricane Katrina. Because of the war, NO wasn’t protected. Because of the war, the poorest people weren’t safely out of NO before the hurricane hit. The government has made an incredibly poor showing of support. It’s time yet again to be proud of the people who live in America because they are doing an upstanding job of offering aid to those affected.

9/11 was a premediated situation where people were murdered in cold blood. LA is facing an economic, environmental and social disaster…The two events can not and should not be compared for these simple reasons. Both situations were/are unforunate and saddening.

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