Down in the Flood
Crash on the levee, mama, Water's gonna overflow, Swamp's gonna rise, No boat's gonna row.
– Bob Dylan
I’m really shocked speechless by the devastation of the Mississippi Delta, and by the stream of news and images that seem to grow worse by the hour. It appears that a major American city, an irreplaceable part of our history and culture, has been nearly wiped off the map. Nearly a million Americans are basically refugees, likely to spend a considerable period in camps and temporary housing. And all this happened in a period of about 24 hours.
We see this kind of thing in other parts of the world, where even staggering death tolls can seem abstract. 60,000 people killed in floods in Bangladesh, millions left homeless in the tsunami. But this is here, on our shores. Our family and neighbors are the ones suffering. Our institutions and our public service officials are the ones who need to coordinate the recovery. I wish them well.
Please give to the American Red Cross.
9:00:14 AM
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