French Quarter

When I saw that there was an article in Slate called "Louisiana's Napoleon Complex," I immediately guessed what it would be about, and was wrong. But upon guessing, I figured that since the article did not make the connection I'd imagined it would, I might as well make it myself.

The obvious parallel to Hurricane Katrina is not 9/11 but rather the tragic neglect and mass death of French elderly people during a heat wave in the summer of 2003. Both catastrophes shock not because of what was done, but because of what wasn't done, and because they were things that one doesn't expect to happen in a modern, Western country. "How could this happen here?," we ask, mystified, and then the rounds of blaming begin. Our own government may indirectly be at fault for not putting appropriate measures into place that might have prevented an attack like 9/11, but an external enemy made the situation easier to grasp.