Katrina was a mirror..

Katrina was a mirror of the present and we are blind. We do not see what our society has become. There are lessons to be learned and, sadly, we are not up to it.

Rather than the independent, self-reliant, strong in faith and fiber individuals that founded this country we found ourselves. Instead of personal independence we found dependency. Instead of personal responsibility we found constant complaining, finger pointing, and desertion by law enforcement. Instead of decisive decisions we found confusion, hesitancy, chest-thumping, and more shirking of responsibility.

Rather than be self-reliant we do nothing but complain loudly that somebody else should have taken care of us. Rather than be more responsible for ourselves when given plenty of warning, we do little but point fingers of blame in all directions but at ourselves.

Did we learn that our law enforcement job is still our responsibility even when things go badly? Did we learn that our moral values are most visible when things go bad? Did we learn that we can not eat or drink TV’s and DVD players?

Did we learn to become tenaciously vocal when the knee-jerk reaction is to rebuild a house of cards on a bed of shifting sand? Did we learn that Mother Nature will bite us each time we build something without consulting Her? Did we learn that all the passionate rhetoric to rebuild has little effect on changing sea level and controlling hurricanes? Did we learn anything?

Well, yes we did. We learned that we can not trust our elected leaders to think, to honor their oath of office, to be responsible, to do little but react to every situation with a blank check or the demanding of one. We learned there is little respect for the hard work that results in the tax dollars that are being thrown into the open pit of natural disasters. We learned that the ego of elected office takes precedence over common sense and fiscal responsibility. We learned that, as of 911, the pocketbooks of taxpayers are responsible for everything of any media interest. Not the farm lost in Kansas with scant media attention but the worthless neighborhood property in New Orleans with constant media attention..

We learned that the media controls the country while blaming President Bush for everything 24/7.