I've seen a rich man beg
I've seen a good man sin
I've seen a tough man cry
I've seen a loser win
And a sad man grin
I heard an honest man lie
I've seen the good side of bad
And the downside of up
And everything between
I licked the silver spoon
Drank from the golden cup
-Everlast "What It's Like"

For generations, it has been told by the wise ones in our society that it is difficult to tell the true character of a person on an everyday basis: It takes special circumstances, when things come down to the bottom of it all...crisis and the like...to actually tell the character of a person.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the true nature of portions of our society have been made known to the entire world. In an instant it is turned political and blamed on the sitting president by liberals while National Guard and other first responders (police, firefighters, and paramedical personnel) rush to protect and serve, as their oaths to uphold and defend the basic tenets of society dictate. Masses are housed in the largest structures that the area has to offer and then transported by bus to Houston, TX while others fight to stay in the homes that they have spent years making for themselves.

I have always had a fixation on the endtimes--a field of study called eschatology. What will the last days of mankind be like? I have always been intrigued by the epic events that pepper the timeline of mankind, with this single chain of events being the epitome of them all. As a student of human behavior, however, I have always wondered how people would deal with these turbulent times.

The events following Hurricane Katrina offer us a benchmark for what to expect of human behavior in epic times in history. I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The federal rescue effort statistics as of 6 September 2005 per FEMA:

Rescues performed 32,000
Shelters 559
People housed in shelters 182,000
FEMA responders 7,000
U.S. Coast Guard personnel 4,000
National Guard personnel 43,000
Active Duty Military 15,000
MREs provided (meals) 11.3 million
Water provided (liters) 18 million

These numbers are spectacular. Other numbers I have come across in the past few days have been, for example, the number of volunteers that Houston-area churches were able to recruit in train in just a few dozen hours: 31,000.

We have all heard the reports of assaults on the police, firefighters, and soldiers, sailors, and airmen assisting in the relief efforts. This simply is ridiculous. What goes through a person's head when something like this has happened? Is it a free ticket to completely be ridiculous in one's actions? Or, maybe, this is how they act on an everday basis? I can understand looting for the basis of survival, but not anything more. There have been stories going around about "tribes" forming of people across various divides--economic, cultural, and racial--in order to better survive. There have also been stories about gangs emerging and wanton violence.

British news outlet The Online Sun published a story online recently at http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005410428,00.html called "Orphans of the Storm" highlighting those children that have been orphaned--by one means or another--by the natural disaster. The most chilling line in the entire piece, in my opinion is the one that reads: "Rescuers are haunted by the realisation that hundreds of survivors may never be reunited with their loved ones. Older children may even be faced with the worst task of all — identifying the bodies of their parents."
Truly, this event in our history can be used to benchmark several things about human society. Among the short list:

o Human behavior in epic times of trial
o Proof of development of different economic systems in an economic breakdown (the theory goes that barter is among the most basic of economic systems and currency, fiat or otherwise, is an indication of a more advanced economic system)
o Methods of better responding to disaster threats at the regional, state, and local levels.

I put the lyrics in the beginning of this entry in due to pieces done by two very good friends of mine who spoke of the relief effort in terms of their experiences as first responders--a police officer and a firefighter (both soldiers, also) and the experience of people standing on the outside of the fire looking in. You cannot understand what these fine people go through unless you walk a mile in their shoes.

So, in conclusion, probably the only redeeming factor of the chaos in the Katrina debacle is the basic human element of kindness towards his or her fellow person.

To those who have given of themselves to help this area get back up on it's feet: My hat goes off to you and I thank you with every bit of my person. To those people who are a part of the problem: Go away now. No one wants you here.