Society's breakdown impacts all of us

What we are seeing in New Orleans is the face of desperation. The way people handle the desperate situation there is a reflection of a nation in chaos. And it may well reflect the future of this great country as we continue our struggle between the haves and the have nots.

There are ample directions in which to point a finger of blame over the anarchy in New Orleans. Too little preparation and a response time that should have been measured in hours, not days. But it's easy to argue that no amount of preparation could have changed the conditions there.

But what is troubling is the unspoken words. We fear a backlash of political correctness. And so we speak in hushed tones and wonder what form of humanity can resort to the level of animal violence that we witness in New Orleans. For most of us, we will never understand. It's that lack of understanding that will doom our future.

There will never be adequate words to fully address the deteriorating conditions through the Gulf Coast. We can only imagine. But it's not the natural disaster that will go down in history, rather it's the breakdown in civilization that has followed that will mark this tragedy for all time.

We are witnessing the worst of humanity. We are seeing how some react in the worst of times. And for some unknown reason, for the most part we stand by and shake our heads but do little else. The price to be paid cannot and will not be measured in dollars and cents. Instead the price will be measured in the widening gap of trust and concern among different cultures in this country.

None of us can fully predict how we would react in desperate times. We can believe one way but that's just a belief - it's not reality. But the level of degradation and pure animal violence no one could have predicted.

Social scientists tell us that in desperate times, different people react differently. There are among some of us a communal attitude where a helping hand is extended to strangers, where a common need is shared by all, where the strong help the weak. But others use this occasion to react just the opposite - to prey on the weak, to take advantage of those unable to care for themselves, to resort to the survival of the fittest mentality that will surely doom them in the end.

No segment of the population is either all good or all bad. Good and evil exist in all corners of a community. But what we're seeing in New Orleans is shocking and sobering and disheartening.

Most of us have shed tears and said prayers for those impacted by this gigantic disaster. And many are opening their doors and their pocketbooks to do what little we can in whatever manner possible. But in the back of our minds is the scene of chaos - of looters not of food but of guns. We try to ignore their stupidity and think only of those who are hurting and need our help.

The way we react under the worst of conditions says much about us. Were the stories out of New Orleans isolated and rare, we could ignore them. But they are neither isolated nor rare unfortunately.

As a result of what we are seeing with our own eyes, most of America will hold those guilty in low esteem not for days and months but for years. Social progress 40 years in the making can be wiped out in short order. Sadly, it's happening in New Orleans.