The spread of mankind around the globe was made possible by water. In the days before planes, before cars, before railroads, oceans and lakes and rivers were the world's highways.
And control of these highways has spawned wars, and inspired fruitless quests, such as the one for the fabled Northwest Passage.
The history of this country is the history of water. The Hudson River, the Erie Canal, and the Great Lakes were a conduit for goods and settlers. That conduit is why my hometown, New York City, rose as an economic power in the 19th century. The Port of New York is one of the reasons why the city remained one.
We know that this country has a short memory. Apparently, in our collective amnesia, we, forgot that the history of New Orleans is a history of water, too. It was a gateway into this nation for people and goods, and the means by which goods flowed down the Mississippi River from states in the country's far north.
Up until last Saturday, the Port of New Orleans was an integral part of this nation's circulatory system, allowing the oxygen of the economic system -- goods -- to flow in and out. And now a major artery has been severed.
Nothing any Washington politician or bureaucrat can say at this point can explain to me why, even if this administration actually does believe its inept and callous response to the plight of our fellow citizens can be in any way excused or justified, it didn't have enough of a sense of self-preservation to recognize what the impact of a Category 5 hurricane on New Orleans could mean for the nation's economic well-being.
I've heard the pundits point out the fact that New Orleans is a point of entry for 1/3 of the oil that the nation uses. That refineries there were responsible for refining 1/5 of domestically produced oil, and a significant percentage of our natural gas.* Why wasn't that a kick in the ass, even if the rest of the nation was miraculously indifferent to all the other goods and products that flowed through the port?
It's too simplistic to use economic determinism as the only lens through which to view history. But it's also impossible to leave it out of one's interpretations. And, with this administration, it's stupid to ignore the fact that profits and losses -- and how the balance sheet ultimately affects its cronies -- are the primary calculus for the Bush administration.
They're failures, by their own standards.
[Note: To me, the human cost is the real tragedy. In my view, the federal government absolutely has a responsibility to Katrina's victims, and there's no excuse for the innumerable instances of FEMA's idiocy. I just had to retreat into (quasi-) objectivity because, although I've already given to the Salvation Army, and called my senators and congressman, and called Harry Reid, and Howard, Dean, too, continuing to obsess about what's happening in NOLA and elsewhere in the Gulf Region is only making me feel helpless and powerless and nauseous.]
cross-posted at Booman Tribune.