Ok, over the past couple of days I have been reading a few news articles about Hurricane Katrina's aftermath and watching BBC News in the evenings until I just can't take it anymore, which doesn't take long. It makes me sick hearing about and watching the chain of events that have unfolded.

Seeing the destruction of New Orleans immediately brought back my Senior English class in high school. Why do you ask? When I talk about the destruction of New Orleans, I don't mean the flood waters or the hurricane winds. I am talking about the destruction of people, of human behavior. I first read "Lord of the Flies" in 12th grade and we studied the depravity of man. In dire situations, the most basic human response is survival of the fittest, everyone for him/herself. This is what has become of New Orleans.

Or have we as a country been slowly edging our way towards this over the last several years?

As Americans, we have a created the "now, now, now" mentality and that mentality combined with a catastrophic event has created such unrest. I recognize that the government's relief efforts have not been adequate, however could our expectations be a little high. There is no electricity, no communications, roads are over-flooded, and people are still trapped on rooftops. This type of relief effort can't be thrown together at a whim. Especially, when the behavior of those wanting to be rescued has taken such a depraved turn.

I sympathize with every single victim that has suffered loss as a result of Katrina, and have no idea what I would do in their situation. I know what I would not do. I wouldn't loot. I wouldn't trample over others to get on a bus out of town. I wouldn't start shooting at people attempting to evacuate a hospital. I would hope that after I take care of my wife, I would help others as well, not only be concerned about me and mine, but again, I have never been in this situation.

I wanted to leave with a quote from a quality television show (wouldn't want to let people down) that tackled a similar subject. LOST "If we can't live together...then we're going to die alone."

This post may not make a lot of since, or flow very well, I just needed to put some of my thoughts down on "paper".