I just read at sfgate.com that New Orleans and San Fransisco have been the only cities to be destroyed by natural disasters.

Um, hello?

A category 4 hurricane with 140+ mph winds and a 16-foot storm surge wiped out a Gulf city with very little warning and pathetic preparation... sound familiar???

This was Galveston, TX in 1900, but no one seems to remember! Up to 1/3 of the city was killed (ca. 10,000 ppl) and they had to rebuild the city 17 feet higher and add a sea wall to make it viable. It did much better against a C4 hurricane a few years later.

What the hell is wrong with us!!!! Americans have absolutely no sense of history, and most of us are like children in our naive surprise that we are vulnerable.

I can see it now...

1) We'll have a catastrophic riot with thousands dead and ask ourselves, "How could this happen?" It happened before in the Draft Riots of 1863!!

2) The San Andreas fault will rupture, killing tens or hundreds of thousands, and we'll wonder the same, forgetting about San Fransisco.

3) Years or decades from now, a terrorist group will smuggle in a nuclear bomb (there is already worry that 2 nukes are INSIDE THE U.S. RIGHT NOW- see http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45203) and blow the hell out of DC, NY or LA, and we'll stand around wondering, "How could this happen to US?"... forgetting all about the devastation of 9/11.

Obviously, I'm angry about this after just reading an editorial claiming that Katrina was pretty much alone in its style and destruction. Read the book Isaac's Storm and you'll see how eerily similar Galveston and N.O. were. It makes me sad to think we are so short-sighted. It must delight our enemies.

Alex Stiner
Copywriting Solutions

Well, I for one would like to know where this guy (Joseph Farah, I don't know much about him, I'll confess) got his intel. Seems he's awful vague about "officials believe" and "capture operatives revealed," etc.

Where's the credibility?

Still, it's very scary to contemplate.

John

Alex,

I wonder if there is something deeply embedded in the American psyche that causes this absent mindedness? There seems to be some kind of naive optimism and sense of the "promised land" that makes little sense to outsiders looking in.

In fact, the Church of England has just published a report all about how the book of Revelations is being interpreted by Neo-cons and evangelicals as justification for American imperialism and spreading the word of freedom to the darkest recesses of the planet. i.e. american foreign policy and how everyone should embrace an american notion of democracy, like it or not. i.e. the politicians are leveraging misguided beliefs for their own advantage. C of E's interpretation is the opposite - the Book of Revelations was ANTI-imperialist.

The other thing outsiders notice is the hysteria that accompanies disasters in America. Conversely, various american observers were quite amazed at how calm London was in the aftermath of recent terrorist attacks and how quickly it was business as usual. One man who was injured in the blasts was typically stoic and said that he'd be going back to work on the Monday and using the Underground to get there - because he didn't want the rest of his life to be affected by what had happened.

But then maybe it's because our history is littered with war (we must have been at war with the French for the best part of a thousand years, and now we have an ongoing war of words with them - will we ever see eye to eye on anything? ), uprisings, riots and terrorism.

Or maybe it's just as simple as people weren't paying attention in history class!

Jane

as an american . the how can it happen here outlook really irks me.
America has the same if not worse problems as other parts of the world. the federal government is run by appointees who are unqualified for the job to a point it take five people to get the job of one person done.

the amercian people have been trained to not think far beyone the next pay check. to believe that the federal governernment is going to save them when they get in trouble. that they don't have to prepare for anything. and it is up to someone else to make sure they have the skills they need .

the world is going to withness the widescale collapse of the Us system in the next ten years or so.Americans do not have the money to pay for the Debt the government has and is racking up. and it has made many many many financial promises it can't keep.

Many american corporations can't compete in todays world. so the government supports them. many americans can't support themselves . so the government supports them. around the world many dictators couldn't stay in power without the us governments support .

a modern version of the 3/5th comprimise. The system is breaking down. it isn't American Democracy the government is spreading. it's a half brained agenda . that is going to leave this country broke and falling apart .

Ken

Ken,

Ya lost me. Pretty vague claims all around. "Modern version of the 3/5th compromise?" The slaves' voting law? Come again?

Jane,

There is definitely a sense of isolation here in the states, along with myriad other factors, that explain why we're goofy in our responses to disaster.

Part of it is cultural; we had not had a foreign attack in over 60 years (pre-9/11, of course) and that was far off in Hawaii. We're just not used to having bad stuff happen to us directly, to our credit or detriment. We've always been a nation who helps other people, whether from generosity or from a sense of "White Man's Burden," you decide.

Part of it is generational; pardon the blunt language, but many young Americans are idiots. Just plain idiots. Mind-numbingly ignorant idiots. Obsessed with fashion and image, there is a shocking lack of depth in some young folks today (listen to me- I sound like an old man). Even in the college classes I teach, some students don't even know basic, recent dates, such as the start and end of World War 2, etc. We're not talking ancient history here.

And part of it is psychological. We are just a forgetful nation, and this lack of historical awareness plays a role. 9/11 was only four years ago, yet my mom mentioned today that an airport recently let her keep her nail file on a flight. Three years ago, she would have been beaten and attacked by dogs. In addition, because of our status as superpower #1, we are more susceptible to groupthink than other nations, I'd wager. Because we're the big Billy Badass on the block, we don't have to take the precautions we should because we are inherently sharper than everyone else. If we weren't, we wouldn't be on top, would we? So we miss the Mohammad Attas, the Osama Bin Ladens, the Hurricane Katrinas.

Alex Stiner