Everyone who's anyone in the American media has gathered along the Louisiana coast to stand in the wind and rain as Hurricane Gustav comes ashore. Of course, the political fiasco that followed Katrina is part of their motivation but one would think that local news and weather personnel could provide the storm coverage. Perhaps these gods of American culture are convinced that we, the adoring American public, can only believe what they, the American media celebrities, have to report.
With all due respect to the suffering of Louisiana residents, it is time that we focus attention on the futility of living on floodplains and in areas protected by levees. Decades without a major storm or flood allow us to become complacent; we make assumptions based on what we have observed during our brief, human lives, an instant in natural history. Then, two major hurricanes strike within three years and the toll on society, measured in both human lives and financial costs, is staggering.
Hopefully, once they dry out, our media celebrities will descend on Washington to focus on policies that feed these tragedies.
