Taking responsiblity

It now appears that the death toll from Hurricane Katrina has swelled to over 400. That is almost exactly the number of deaths from a tragedy in the early 1990s, one that was entirely avoidable. During the 1992 election campaign, Clinton criticized the Bush administration's refusal to admit Haitian refugees who had fled their country by boat. As a result of that campaign strategy, when Clinton won, thousands of Haitians cobbled together rafts and makeshift boats and took to the water. Sadly, many drowned. Clinton never acknowledged his responsibility for their deaths.
This morning at the United Nations George Bush took personal blame for all of the problems associated with Hurricane Katrina.
The media largely ignored the boat people's plight, their fate, and the reasons behind the deaths.
Their feeding frenzy toward President Bush following this act of nature is instructive.

Veneer

Learning that a military rescue helicopter was fired on from the Superdome was a jolt into a sharpened state of perception. Just as water peels veneer from furniture, Katrina has stripped New Orleans of its affectation of easygoing cheer. Before the storm struck we learned that New Orleans was home to a significant number of dependent people. It is among those people that street gangs flourished and were tolerated. Now disaster has laid bare the weakness which has suddenly taken hold. In this way, New Orleans was nurturing its potentially fatal flaws just as Great Britain was doing the same with radical islamofascists. Turning a blind eye to a whole segment of citizens who refuse to become contributors to their chosen society is no different from leaving landmines across the terrain.
Of course there are those among any population who cannot care for themselves. It is not those people of whom I speak. It is those burly thugs who have nothing better to do than to loot, threaten, and rant about having been 'oppressed' whom I call out for their venality. And the city which prided itself on a laissez faire attitude about them has been exposed as a façade for subhumans.

What speed of destruction?

Today the new issue of Preservation magazine arrived. A feature article showcases the urban decay that is Detroit. I was struck by the comparison of the devastation of slow decay compared to the instantaneous effects of hurricane Katrina on the cities in its path. One is a culmination of bad policy. The other is chance.
Both are overwhelming.

Selective sympathy

Reading the continuing coverage of Mother Sheehan and her now-absent vigil I am struck by the pick-and-choose nature of the left's sympathy. Noemie Emery has written a good piece about it this morning. But something else is at work as well. Why, if the Sheehan voice must be heeded, were we not to hear the anguished pleas of Teri Schiavo's family that her life be spared?

lily close-up 

Orienpet lilies 

full-blown lotus 

lotus3 

lotus2 

Mrs. P. W. Slocum lotus 

Jacob Klein 2 

Jacob Klein monarda 

Window to the ancient past

This morning's Kansas City Star carries a story which is doubly intriguing due to its historic significance and also its coincidence with September 11, 2001. Were it not for President Bush's edict which halted all blasting, this treasure trove of fossils and information may well have been obliterated.

June's abundance

Even though good dirt is at a premium, the garden is glorious this morning. Missouri summers are rambunctious with growth and this garden is no exception. The phrase "the controlling hand" is key and the concept is always elusive to me, as I tend to get sentimental about everything which tries to grow. But, pruning does occur from time to time, and a crazed 'prune without mercy' mania can be quite liberating.
Couldn't stand it, had to go outdoors early and take the pictures posted here.
It is a magical sort of start to a day.

Red rocks in garden 

Wrinks  

Clematis alpina 

Lilyleaf ladybells 

Huldine closeup 

Clematis huldine