I was going to talk about what happened with Hurricane Katrina and began writing about the typhoon we went through on Guam. I never got to where I was going, which was to say that even with the damage and ferocity of the typhoon I knew, I cannot comprehend what is going on in Louisiana and Mississippi. I know first-hand what it is to go through a severe storm. I do not know what it is like to have my home and city destroyed, to have my country forget about me, to have my family separated and not know where they are or even alive. I do not know what it's like to be more afraid of other people than of a hurricane or flood. I have never seen dead bodies lying in the streets or out in the open. I haven't experienced anything even remotely comparable to what is happening down there. I hope I never will.

In our age of technology and "civility", it is astounding how the situation deteriorated so completely. I can't ask how it happened. There are lots of answers--none of them good or acceptable. It makes me sad that no matter how advanced humans become, we are too often still nothing more than animals.

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One Year Ago Today: