It was a gem of a city. At least, the parts that I saw were...

As I grew older and learned more about the enmeshed relationships between politics and poverty, trips to New Orleans became less attractive to me. Just as I refuse to visit impoverished countries' tourist traps, I felt uncomfortably like I was taking advantage of people who were not benefitting from the money I left behind there.

Katrina has exposed some terrible secrets.

Second, Katrina has provided evidence that the US does not have the infrastructure necessary to prevent total chaos and save lives in the event of attack on our own soil.

Terrorist groups would love to claim responsibility for Katrina.

It's apparent now that there currently exists no way to manage well if our boundary defense systems failed. Heck, we can't manage when we have several days of warning for an event that we already knew without question was bound to happen someday.

From the televised images, things look as catastrophic on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi as they did in Baghdad immediately following our entry through the "shock and awe" campaign in 2003. Just like in Baghdad, people are dying now not necessarily from being in the path of shock and awe, whether it's bombs or a hurricane. They're dying because the basic necessities of life have been taken away and there's no system for them to access existing resources.

And there never really was a system to begin with...

The devastation has come from a lack of sustainable infrastructure in virtually every arena in which we want to trust our governmental authorities.

Defending our boundaries with over-amped vigilance hasn't done a damned thing to solve the root of the problem -- this lack of infrastructure -- nor has it had a positive impact (if any at all) on quelling the cascading breakdown after the initial assault.

Those who had fewer resources before Katrina are naturally the first to fall, but only the first.

My guess is that virtually anyone in governmental power at this point is seeing the last days of their political career. Since it's uneducated and unproductive to blame a calamity of this magnitude on any individual, the important thing is for those of us who own this broken system -- and in this country, that's supposed to be all of us -- to pay very careful attention to what we're seeing, figure out the roots of the problems, and take action to make changes for the future. If that means new leadership is necessary, then let's do it.

Ranting and raving only works to get attention. Finger-pointing misses the point. In order for true change to result from this mess, every able-bodied citizen must take responsibility for whatever part he or she played in the beginnings and perpetuation of the status quo. Then do something different. Very different.

Now, before things get worse.

The concept of karma, as I understand it, can be familial or based on other relationships. Everyone can readily see how children are impacted by their parents' behavior and even history. However, karma is not destiny. It can be changed.