I agree with Gray and Jake. And yes, incompetence on so many levels played a part. The city and state failed those folks as miserably as anyone else did, but we should have done a better job federally, too.

Louisiana is where my family comes from. Fortunately, my extended family doesn't reside in 9th Ward New Orleans, but anyone who's spent time in the cities of Louisiana knows what those circumstances are like. A huge amount of of those people were absolutely resourceless. Poor. Carless. In ill health. Incapable of leaving without a plan that helped them do so. And yes, a huge majority of them were black. While I don't believe it's the federal government's sole responsibility to have rescued them, that situation was a failure on many levels. And while a huge majority of those who fell victim to the worst events were black, because that's who lives in inner city NO, a lot of people forget that the overall disaster wrecked the lives of desperately poor folks in addition to working class citizens, not just black ones.

My husband and I volunteered down there with a Red Cross medical team last September for three weeks. It was appalling. And unfair. And unnecessary. I will never forget the sights and smells of that time. We would like to go back at the end of next month just to see NO and the Gulf Coast again and see the state of things a year later, but I don't know if that'll be possible with me in school now.