The rest of the world is seeing the best and worst of the United States in the aftermath of the hurricane that hit the coastal south areas this past week. Images of looting and muggings filled the television screens around the globe as some people, mostly black as shown on TV, gave way to the baser human drives, not of survival but of greed.
And, yet, images of bravery and human selflessness, too, have found their way to our television screens. The Coast Guard choppers from almost the time the levy broke until even today, they have lifted out nearly 10000 stranded residents. Doctors and nurses at the risk of their own lives and safety staying behind in hospitals to care for patients.
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I saw today a guy wading through the streets of New Orleans. He was, like that old Pete Seeger song, waste deep in the Big Muddy. And here he was keeping his arms above water, strolling along, wading as if without a care in the world. He was smoking a cigarette. I couldn't help but wonder where he got a cigarette in the middle of a flood, and how the hell he got it lit and kept it dry.
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