Still Blue

Andy Towle reminds us over at Towleroad that one year on, New Orleans still sits in ruins.

Today I was discussing with a friend who lives here in downtown L.A. my recent contretemps with Professor Tom Slater over what to do about Los Angeles's homeless problem, the nation's largest (though that may change when the government cuts off the housing vouchers for Katrina refugees). We were discussing ways that government resources could be used more effectively to help the sick and addicted on the streets of my city, when a weariness overtook me. I said to my friend, look, we watched a major American city destroyed last year, and the government is leaving it to rot. How can we expect them to do anything right, when it comes to the poor?

In the long gaze of history, New Orleans will be seen as one of those natural disasters that reveals great weaknesses of man-made origin. It will be a flash-frame moment of truth about America today.