Most of New Orleans is a morass of mud and stinking remains of what was once a unique and proud city.  One would think that the survivors would get out there and in a uniquely American manner, raise houses and restore the land to its former appearance.  Unfortunately, the people were removed and the carpet-baggers who arrived in their place did not bring bags of money to restore what needed to be restored.  The Federal money was for rebuilding the levees and dykes that were built by our ancestors as a way of keeping the Bay out despite the lowlands needing a vastly different solution.  Just as barn raising is out of the equation now, the levees, dykes and other vast Federal plans are not the answer.  The people who once lived there are missing and are the vital part of the equation.

The mistakes in this low-lying coastal city were made long ago and were added to each time a tragedy multiplied the built in answers made by humans plus the U.S. Corps of Engineers.  Manifestly, Nature has told us that the coast should have been left alone and people enjoy the bounty of the wild wet lands and native animals that were there before drastic changes were made.  People came first and they moved out into the wet and tried to make it dry but Katrina and other named and unnamed winds and water brought down the poorly designed walls.

Barn Raising is a good idea.  We like the notion that people of good-will will help their neighbors by lending a hand and set about to build something of value that adds to the value of all the properties around.  The men did the carpentry while the women prepared feasts so that all could come together in fellowship and amicability and be builders and not destroyers.

Mr. Bush, the divider instead of a uniter, did not deliver.   New Orleans remains a festering sore while our nation is involved in a series of wars in distant places while ministrations to the needy and despairing falter and are missing. The soul of America is eroding as fast as the shoreline of New Orleans.