IS ANYONE LISTENING TO THE WIND?
by JON CARROLL, SF Chronicle

... I am thinking about a remarkable statement made by Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff three days after Hurricane Katrina hit: "We totally understand what it's like to be sitting on top of a roof or to be sitting in a shelter where it's hot." We do? He does? He was standing in an air-conditioned conference room in Washington, D.C., in what looked like a $2,000 suit -- what did he understand? Why must patrician bureaucrats fake empathy? It's the illusion of control again. "I shall say that the government cares, and the government will care."

So if I were to take a lesson from Katrina, it would not be about FEMA. It would be about the maintenance of wetlands in other parts of the country, about the effects of clear-cutting the forests, about the effects of poisoning the oceans. There's still time to change, if anyone is listening to the wind.

Full story here.