It's amazing how quickly and easily the thin veneer of civilzation can be peeled away, leaving a hideous and ugly barabarianism as soon as normal systems of order are disrupted.

I remember people shooting at fire trucks during the LA riots, as they burned down their own neighborhoods.

I'm now reading similar reports of assaults and looting in New Orleans.

These tragic events reveal the best and worst of people.

I know people that immediately organized a blood drive with the Red Cross at work.

I also know people who are genuinly angry that not more countries have said they would support us.

The obviously forget that in days we've allocated $10 billion dollars in relief, versus the weeks it took to get to 1 after the Indian Ocean Tsunami. And that killed over a quarter million people. They're still counting and indentifying the bodies.

Not that it makes this less tragic.

The biggest tragedy in my mind, is the lack of planning for what would happen after the disaster. It wasn't like this was a question of if, but when. So why are things playing out like they are?

Makes me wonder how really prepared we are for a true crisis in this country. If we really can be stripped down to animals by a flood, imagine something in a bigger city.

I think the riots were just a taste of that, and that didn't even take and act of nature, just of man.