Ezra
• There's one hell of a book waiting to be written about the evacuation, the chaos and social disintegration in the Superdome, the biblical deluge that demolished Louisiana, and all the rest. If any penetrating, evocative writers ended up in it, it could be one of the most amazing stories of our times. If none were there, some smart freelancer should contract to tell a participant's story. There are just amazing, heartbreaking, stories in here, and the anarchy we've seen rarely breaks into America's generally orderly life.
• John Edwards has put up a perfect post on TPM Cafe. I said yesterday that this flood proves we need effective government. and some former business executive like Warner could go far on that theme. What it also proves -- what you see in stories like this (and you really must follow that link) -- is that we do have Two Americas, one who this could happen to, and one who this could never happen to. Whether the dividing line is class or race I can't tell you, but this would never fucking ever happen in Newport Beach. And it's not just the response -- it's the disrepair and alienation we allowed those communities to fall into. This disaster was brewing long before the weathermen were spitting coffee on their computer screens.
• Lance Mannion has a powerful post on how anarchic this all is -- how what we're seeing is a political vacuum. I've one quibble, though. We're not seeing true anarchy, we're seeing forced anarchy. As Geraldo and Smith have painfully documented, armed troops have circled the holding pens, no one can leave, no can exit, no one can escape. The government has decided that the surrounding communities, the nearby businesses, and the unsuspecting innocents cannot handle a flood of desperate, black refugees. So while it's anarchy, a political void inside, it's kept that way by an excess of political strength barring the stadium doors.
