Looks like I wasn't the only one that felt the way I did about Bush's response. An Op-Ed with similar sentiments appeared in the New York Times yesterday, and the Mayor of New Orleans has had some harsh criticisms for the federal response as well.

And why is it that 99.9% of the stranded are black? You're looking at the percentage of the southern Louisiana population that lives below the poverty line - the people that literally couldn't afford to leave New Orleans before the storm hit. No cars, no money for plane or train tickets, no money for proper ambulatory care. Their economic circumstance literally forced them into this situation. And... their all black. DO NOT tell me that this country has moved completely beyond its ugly past, and that everyone has the same chances so long as they work hard and take responsibility. It simply isn't true, and this is the ugly face of it all. Unfortunately, America is NOT the level playing field that it claims to be. It is time for this country to take a long hard look at itself, figure out why that is, and do what is necessary to be as great as we are capable of being.

"Thousands of refugees from Hurricane Katrina boarded buses for Houston, but others quickly took their places at the filthy, teeming Superdome, which has been serving as the primary shelter. At the increasingly unsanitary convention center, crowds swelled to about 25,000 and desperate refugees clamored for food, water and attention while dead bodies, slumped in wheelchairs or wrapped in sheets, lay in their midst."

I pray to God that I never have to live through such horror, and I pray that all of those people see the light at the end of the tunnel and make it through to better days.