A Katrina Wrap Up?

I think most of us have had enough of Katrina, but we shouldn't. There are lessons to be learned, and not about levee management. It's about people, sapping their spirit, creating an underclass that has been deprived of a basic moral upbringing. Kara Hopkins tells the story well. Link. Excerpts:

Millions of Americans succeed by following the same timeworn path: slug through school, take a job that pays the bills, buy a ring, raise good kids. However quietly desperate, they pose no threat to the social order. They are the order. Not so in urban centers across the country where school is a place to steal sneakers, thugs do business out of car trunks, and teen mothers marry the welfare office.

For decades we've sought to narrow the margins with programs aimed at overcoming poverty and raising esteem, thinking success would be pleasant if improbable, while not fearing an immediate return to riots of the late '60s. But Katrina exposed the thinness of that veneer between civilization and barbarism.

Crisis can elevate the human spirit, turning ordinary men into heroes. Alongside the apocalyptic images came pictures of boat-owners plucking survivors from rooftops and neighbors offering precious water to elderly refugees. But relief workers weren't the vanguard in this rescue effort–armed soldiers with shoot-to-kill orders came first. . .

Poor blacks are cut out of the social fabric. But not because more prosperous Americans are taking anything from them but initiative and self-respect. Lawlessness didn't rule because the looters had spent lifetimes deprived of DVD players. They were out to get something for nothing–an ethic bred by years of guilty generosity prefaced on the assumption that the standard rules of social advancement don't venture into the ghetto.