September 11, 2001 and New Orleans

Today is September 11th. It is seven years since the Twin Towers in New York City were attacked, the Pentagon was attack, and many Americans died in combat with terrorists in a jetliner that eventually crashed into an open field in Pennsylvania. That was a day of horror. It was our generation's December 7th, our Pearl Harbor Day.

Much has happened since that terrible day. Our nation is still at war with terrorists, and we in New Orleans faced another day we will never forget -- August 29th, 2005, the day Hurricane Katrina struck.

Some have tried to compare September 11th and Hurricane Katrina. There are major differences, but there are similarities too. 9/11 was an attack on our nation by a foreign enemy. Katrina was a destructive act of nature combined with a breached levee system. But the similarities are that two major and unique American cities were severely harmed and thousands of Americans died, many more were injured physically and psychologically.

Perhaps the most important similarity is that despite the horror and destruction, other ordinary Americans around the county came to the aid of the wounded cities and their people in that time of desperate need. We were all united on those two horrible days -- September 11th, 2001 and August 29th, 2005 -- united much in the same way as an earlier generation of Americans was instantly united on that day of infamy on December 7th, 1941.

Something good could come from these horrible days, in the end -- a sense of solidarity and a profound and heart-felt compassion for one another as fellow Americans in need.

-- Adrian