Saturday, December 24, 2005

An Exercise in Futility

I watched 60 minutes the other night after the Colt/Bengals game. One of the stories was, surprise, surprise, about New Orleans. Rather than just 20 minutes rehashing the blow by blow of how 500,000 people's lives turned upside down in a few days, this story dwelled on what do we do now? Obviously, the first thing ot come to mind would be to re-build the city. That's fine and dandy. But it will still be umpteen feet below sea level and all we would be doing was rebuilding the target for another pissed off hurricane. This story talked about the 120,000 homes that were damaged and the colossal undertaking of demolishing them and then re-building. And might not it be a better idea to re-locate the town to a saner height above sea level. One science guy contended that in 20 years, the town will be miles out in the Gulf 18 feet lower than the surface with a huge dike around it. A fishbowl of air in a pool of water. I know nostalgia and the connection of history is a powerful thing. Mother Nature surely does not care about any of that. She has indicated her displeasure with New Orleans by taking it out. Would it not be prudent to at least look at an alternative to rebuilding another target? Of course, sentimentality will rule the day. We will most likely pour stupid amounts of dollars and man hours into re-building a community that will inevitably at some future point in time be wiped off the face of the planet again. An exercise in futility.