What Hath Man Wrought

An article by Joel Achenbach in the Washington Post says that many experts feel the disastrous flood in the Midwest was caused, not by Nature, but by Man. Human beings replaced the soil and the native grasses with totally different soil and amendments, as well as non-native plants, thus destroying the natural barriers which either contained heavy runoff or withstood it.

The extent and depth of the tragedy, to both Man and Nature, is beyond comprehension. (You are aware that in just the past few days it has been revealed that there are warehouses in New Orleans still full of building materials, food, appliances, clothing, etc., which never reached the victims of Katrina? Most of what they got were poisonous trailers to live in.)

Bush has touched down in Iowa and will speak fo the victims of this Great Flood shortly. I do hope that he will have his shirt unbuttoned and his sleeves rolled up to emulate hard physical work when he moves to the microphones.

And the media are not without blame for the approach they are taking to this calamity. They have spent a lot of air time talking about how this is going to affect YOUR pocketbook and the inconvenience YOU will experience. Unless you are THERE and have felt THEIR despair, you should be ashamed of thinking of yourself, especially as this tragedy plays out. It would be like going to a funeral and jumping up after the final “amen,” and saying “What say we all go out for a bite?!”