KATRINA CONCERNS

(1) Yesterday's news told us that New Orleans did an absolutely splendid job of evacuating the 80% of its population who could drive themselves out. What we didn't learn until tonight's news is that they made absolutely no provision whatever for evacuating those who were too old, too disabled, or too poor to own or drive cars. In my religious tradition, this is the kind of sin for which Sodom and Gomorrah got wiped out. It needs to be denounced in Congress and from every pulpit in the country.

(2) Reconstructing the Gulf Coast would be a whole lot easier if they had a functioning National Guard doing what it's supposed to be doing at home instead of trying to keep order in Iraq. But then, the wildfire season out West would have done a lot less damage if they'd had the National Guard on the job, too.