Katrina: Gratifying and disturbing reactions

But this doesn't mean we should rush to judgment and condemn people and institutions before all the facts are in, especially when our constructive energies, for now, ought to be directed elsewhere.

I think part of the reason we see such finger-pointing is that some of us live in a distorted reality born of a stunning hubris. It teaches that human beings and especially Americans are virtually immune from harm -- from human or natural enemies -- if we just take the appropriate precautionary measures or avoid missteps that lead to disasters.

We saw similar finger-pointing after 9-11; we see it every time an American soldier tragically dies in Iraq. It can't just be that murderous terrorists attacked us without provocation or warning. The fault has to lie with failures of our intelligence agencies -- as if they are capable of perfection and preventing all attacks.

When our soldiers die in Iraq, it can't just be that murderous, shadow-lurking terrorists are bound to succeed on occasion. It must be that we are failing altogether in our mission, because the presumption is that unless we have an unblemished record, someone is radically at fault.

This same hubris causes some to underestimate nature and overestimate our ability to affect its awesome forces -- whether it is our disbelief at being unable to tame the destructive powers of hurricanes or the ludicrous attribution of such disasters to man-made global warming.

As great as we Americans are, we are just human beings -- wonderful as human beings go, but far from perfect. We are vulnerable to the same harms as all other human beings, and not everything that befalls us is our fault.

Maybe heads need to roll on this thing in the fullness of time; those at whatever level of government whose action or inaction may have led to suffering or death must be accountable. But for now, we mustn't allow the armchair demands for perfection by the whining classes to obscure our glimpse of the human kindness on display in response to this disaster and the heroic rescue efforts now underway.