American Spirit

Fire of Liberty

Michael Novak has penned a very interesting piece over at National Review Online on the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and how the folks in the MSM and the leaders in Europe who chose to remark that President Bush failed to address the disaster in a more timely. Novak points out that while it is easy for people to stand on an interstate, outside a convention center jumping and screaming about no-one responding to these "poor people" or even someone like Germany's PM Schroeder comparing his timely response to the floods that swept through Germany to President Bush's response to Katrina but they seem to forget how severe and expansive the disaster zone of Katrina really was. To understand the shear totality of Katrina and how silly the European leader's remarks that they could have handled the disaster better, Novak provided an example of what a storm like Katrina would have done to Europe. Here's a sample:

If Katrina had hit in the south of France, it would have smashed the entire southern coastline and devastated at least a third of the country from there on northwards. If Katrina had hit the west coast of France, its front — which measured 541 miles across — would have unleashed 140-mph winds upon the entire western coastline and roared inwards to cover 90,000 square miles of France from west to east.

Winds devastating an entire 90,000 square miles of the United Kingdom would have devastated nearly every mile of it.

Almost the same goes for a storm hitting the entire Italian coastline from the French border to a point 541 miles southward, well to the south of Naples. To grab for 90,000 square miles of Italy to smash, the storm would have had to hurtle across that country and tear it up from its east coast to the Adriatic, along a front from France nearly to Calabria.

I'd say that faced with what Katrina dished out, the administration and a wealth of national guardsman, Coast Guard & Naval ships and aircraft, as well as a legion of personnel and volunteers seemed to respond to the disaster at breakneck speeds. What impressed me the most is the spirit of private charity that generally sprouts up throughout this nation when our neighbor and fellow man are struck by an enormous disaster like Katrina. No matter how bad it might look or sound on cable news and Europe, the American people seem to see things from a more wider lens and aren't so wrapped up icondemningng President Bush but are more interested in getting the much needed relief to the folks in need. So while natural disasters will come in all shapes and forms throughout the mean and harsh planet, we can still look forward to the American spirit of charity and kindness rising up and taking care of the problem. Thank G-d for America.