By Henry J. Stern
September 7, 2005

As of this afternoon, we have received 94 blogs from readers about Katrina.  That is a record for this year, surpassed only by the several hundred letters of condolence we received at the passing of Boomer in August 2004.  It is tragedy, great or small, which appears to compel  people to respond.
 
The Katrina letters from readers all appear today, in order of receipt, on our blog.  The way to find them is to go to the home page, www.nycivic.com, scroll down a bit, and then click the link Starblog.  If anyone has difficulty finding the blog, please e-mail StarQuest@nycivic.org or telephone 212-564-4441.
 
A number of blogs said we were too critical of President Bush, pointing out that he issued televised warnings and urged people to leave before the storm hit.  These writers blamed Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux (old French roots) Blanco, and state and local agencies, especially the police, for the undeniably inept local response to the tragedy, and their failure to ask promptly for federal assistance.  Others attacked the President for indifference to the poor or racism, pointing out his failure to appear personally in the stricken city.  These views reflected to some extent the political orientation of the writers, and their attitude to the war in Iraq.
 
Sports news: It was pointed out to me by several bloggers that the Superdome has a roof (or dome), through which it would be difficult to airdrop supplies.  From far away, I thought the dome was retractable, but it is not.  Only a hurricane can tear off part of it, as Katrina did.  I modify the idea to suggest dropping the supplies just outside the Superdome, or try to breach the roof sufficiently to let the food, water and medicine through. If the dome could be retracted, one would be able to land a helicopter on the playing field, if it were not too soggy, and wouldn't have to worry about the drop.
 
The point is that direct action could have been taken to relieve a situation where thousands of people are said to have been confined by raging floodwaters, without food, water or adequate toilets for three days.  This is, after all, 2005, and we are supposed to be living in the first world.

A few other thoughts occurred to us today.  1) Why is so enormous a tragedy called :"an act of God"?  2) If God wanted to punish the sinners of New Orleans, why did he single out the black and the poor?  3) If the President, or anyone else, intentionally failed to alleviate the tragedy, would he or she ever be able to attain a state of grace?

When the Mt. St. Helens volcano in Washington State renewed its activity in 1980, everyone on the mountain was told to evacuate because a major eruption was viewed as imminent.  An 84-year-old innkeeper, oddly named Harry Truman, refused to leave his home.  His body, presumably under the ashes, was never found.  Should he have been forced to leave?   Americans thought that Truman was heroic, similar in a way to D. B. Cooper.  Is there a different standard for poor people in New Orleans, assuming that, in fact they were offered transportation?  Who decides who can stay and who must go?
 
We want to thank all of you for your early responses to yesterday's column.  There are a lot of good ideas out there, and this blog and others should be combed for them.  One of the benefits of the blogosphere is that a lot of ideas are offered, some of which are useful to other people.  The rest can be trashed.  Or you can skim until you find something that is particularly informative or sensible.  We did not want to censor or abridge these letters.
 
To keep up with your observations on the storm and its aftermath, which come from a variety of sources and express different opinions, we are linking to the five New York City dailies and their editorial comments, not their news stories.  There is one Post story, by Douglas Simpson, Ted Bridis and Ian Bishop, which should not be overlooked. The headline is spread across the top of two pages, 6 and 7, in 108-point type, letters an inch and a half tall, the largest type the newspaper uses except for page one.  It read: FEMA FOOL SAT ON HIS HANDS. One wonders how the Post missed the adjective FAT to describe Mr. Brown, but it would be inaccurate.  He is not thin, but neither is he porky.  The word may apply, however, to his head.
 
Here are the links we promised you to today's editorials and columns on Katrina:
 
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Editorial, It's Not a Blame Game.  
Columns, Maureen Dowd, Haunted by Hesitation.
Thomas L. Friedman: Osama and Katrina.
 
DAILY NEWS: Editorial, New Deal for New Orleans.
Columns, Michael Goodwin, Don't Blame Only Feds, Crime rate, inept pols leveled New Orleans before the storm. 
Bill Hammond, Just Leave Gas Prices Alone.
Voice of the People.
 
NEW YORK POST: Editorial, Katrina: The Local Angle.
Columns, Dick Morris, Katrina Politics - Why Dubya Will Recover.
John Podhoretz, An Obscene Charge, Left's vile bid to blame racism for relief bungling.
Arnold Ahlert, Katrina: Bitter Lessons.
Michelle Malkin, No, Not Another Commission.
 
NEWSDAY: Column, Clarence Page, Katrina Stirs Up a Storm of Questions.  Would the victims have been rescued, fed and evacuated with greater urgency had they not been mostly black and poor?
Klaus Jacob, Muddy Thinking Dooms New Orleans, It is time to constructively deconstruct, not destructively reconstruct.
 
THE NEW YORK SUN: Columns, William F. Buckley, Jr., Fighting Back in Katrina' s Aftermath.
Thomas Bray,The Way to Revive The Big Easy.
 
ABC NEWS POLITICAL UNIT: The Note:  Red Versus Blue, Part XXXII. The Absence of the Color Purple

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