The Beginning Of The End

One of the most powerful countries in the world has been crippled. Not by war, not by terrorism, but by the wrath of Mother Nature; by one single storm.

I have to wonder if anyone realizes yet, that Katrina is the beginning of the end -- of this country's stability, of this country's power, of this country's society -- of life as we know it.

Just the lack of oil, gasoline, and natural gas is already causing the entire South East United States to grind to a halt, and it won't be long before the entire Eastern Seaboard feels the crush as well. Next will be the West Coast, and soon thereafter, the rest of the world will be noticing the loss of our commerce...

We thought the economy was bad before? Just wait a month. The GNP will drop through the floor. The forced poverty of the South East will cause higher taxes, higher insurance premiums, sky high gasoline prices (as is already being demonstrated in Georgia and Alabama), higher transportation costs, product costs will go through the roof...

And as the waters recede from devastated areas, health risks and disease will flourish and spread. Diseases that the US hasn't had to face in a hundred years or more, if at all, will rise up and take even more lives: Malaria, cholera, deadly molds, bacterias...

The Gulf Coast will become a graveyard... A death trap... If it isn't already worthy of those titles.

And still the looting continues... Violence is taking hold, and isn't going to be letting go any time soon. Police officers are shot protecting material posessions. People are shot, for trying to make off with material posessions. Evacuations are put on pause because scared people are shooting at eachother...

Refugees... I can't believe I'm actually using that word to describe Americans. Americans are never the refugees. We're always the refuge. But that's changing too. Refugees will flood other states (and maybe even other countries), creating a burden on local governments, and building animosity between themselves and the previous residents...

Martial law will have to be set in place as scared, sick, and starving people overrun local law enforcement...

Call me pessimistic, but I can see how this national disaster could eventually be the cause of a revolution or civil war. Maybe we need a revolution, the way this country has been going... But I had hoped it wouldn't happen in my lifetime, or my son's... And its looking more and more like it will.

Katrina may have just been a hurricane, but she's turning out to be a catalyst as well -- And I, for one, am afraid of what the future has in store for us.