I finally finished it. Assuming they decide to use it and all, this is what I submitted:

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In what was our first real chance to demonstrate all that had been learned since September 11th, 2001, the consensus is resoundingly clear: America, we failed.

It was an opportunity to test in a real-time setting all the lessons we'd learned from disaster preparedness, all the scenarios we'd developed for evacuation and relief, all the billions upon billions we'd invested as taxpayers into homeland security and infrastructure.

Hurricane Katrina showed us that we really aren't prepared for anything.

As an American, I am disgusted knowing that our government can marshal up a thousand troops on a moment's notice to fight a war over half of the country disapproves of, but can provide no support to rescue the doctors and patients trapped inside a hospital while floodwaters rise and looters wait outside. As someone who grew up in New Orleans, I am devastated knowing that my parents are now refugees as they struggle to figure out what to do about their home and jobs. I am worried for my siblings who will have to go to school indefinitely in another state because the one they used to attend was demolished.

I am still psychologically ill-equipped to comprehend the immediate destruction of my birthplace overnight; despite the photographs I've seen on news feeds, despite the satellite images, despite first-hand reports from friends and family, it hasn't sunk in yet, weeks after the hurricane made landfall.

Out of this tragedy, details are emerging that paint all levels of our federal government in a negative light. Beginning with the resignation of the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States (FEMA), Michael Brown, and President Bush's extremely belated admission of responsibility, our current administration is acting more fearful than I've ever seen. And if no other benefit arises from this tragedy, for this I am thankful.

What Katrina showed was the Bush administration's plans for American welfare have amounted to nothing. FEMA was crippled as an effective disaster-management agency when it was absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 and, as such, its focus ironically became less on domestic disasters and more on foreign terrorism. Harsh criticism has been raised whether too much emphasis was placed on FEMA's responsiveness to terrorist attacks and consequently not enough placed on responsiveness to natural disasters. It's plain that America and the rest of the world has witnessed bureaucratic failure at all levels of our government and that from this, if only in a scramble for Bush to save face, heads will roll as the administration struggles against the backlash.

Juxtaposed against all of this, I can't help but think of resigned phonecalls from my parents in intermittent cell phone reception telling me that they were running out of food and water and later, after conditions deteriorated so much and the ever-present threat of armed looters weakened their resolve, they were giving up and leaving the house they'd fought desperately to remain in even while the most powerful of storms ever to hit the United States was days away. I am seared with images of how my younger brother and sister must've felt seeing bodies floating in the water. How they must have felt hearing gunshots. And through all of this I am constantly aware that they are the lucky ones.

What does this mean for us internationally? Well, as always, the loss of human life to any cause is unjustifiable and cause for concern and support. But hurricane Katrina is just another setback to our standing as a world superpower– we've made clear that we lack the skill and resources to police and control our own land, much less hold sway over another country. However, I truly believe the only way to effectively combat the bullying tactics of our current administration is a unified effort from the rest of the world to show us we aren't the boss any longer. If nothing else, Katrina has displayed our weakness; we're far too disorganized to be left on our own and the only way our country will progress and ascend out of this rut is with outside intervention.

Entry last modified: July 17, 2008 at 9:59 pm.

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