It was blasted all over the news tonight, how the New Orleans Saints were hosting their first game in the Superdome in post Katrina NoLa.

At first, since I am not a Saints fan, it didn't really impress me.  But after some reflection I realized that this is a huge moment for NoLa.  the Superdome was the symbol of the local and state governments failure, the site where the sheep were herded to and left to the elements and the wolves.

People applauded when Bourbon Street reopened, and Mardi Gras went on, as those are vibrant images of the fun and happiness that most of us think if in regards to NoLa, but the Superdome was the grim reminder of the gritty ugly reality.

In a sense the game tonight is an attempt at a symbolic healing.  So the festivities, more akin to a Superbowl then a Monday night football game are understandable, and even applauded. 

And yet...

A part of me remembers reading recently how the clean up is dragging for so many people, how newspaper articles bemoaned that so much work had to be done, and complained about how the government needs to do more.

So I had to ask myself, was money spent to rebuild the Superdome that could have had more benefit to the community at large? 

This story forst broke in the wake of all the horror stories coming out of Katrina.  The story reported that Doctors at a New Orleans hopsital had administered lethal doses to patients they determined would not survive the evacuation, or the wait for evacuation.

When I first read it, I was sure it was urban legend.  It was not.

Now the grim story has come full circle as three people have been charged with Murder.

The quandry facing people is this: Was this compassion or crime?  Mercy or murder?

Some I have spoken too were sorrowed but admitted they would likely do the same, to spare people further suffering in an extreme situation.  Others, like me were horrified at the grim nature of it, as well as the implied violation of the physicians oath. 

I mean, we all hear stories and mention of the famed Hippocratic Oath, right?  And it happens to pretty clearly speak against euthanasia, so it is a no brainer, right?

Of course not, because it is just a silly tradition, not an oath with any binding force, otherwise there wouild be no abortion, and no physician assisted suicide, etc.

And yet...at the same time, I have to acknowledge that I was not there, and I was not in that situation, and honestly, I could not say what choices I might have made in such extreme circumstances.  And a decent number of people I talked to about this agree. 

Which is the better reflection on our culture?  To allow suffering out of principle, or to deliberately kill out of principle?

Warrants say four patients were given lethal drugs after Katrina

The arrest warrants for a doctor and two nurses booked in the deaths of patients at a New Orleans hospital in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina say lethal doses of morphine and a sedative known as Versed were administered.

The warrants accuse the three of being "principals to second-degree murder" and say they intentionally killed four patients at Memorial Medical Center "by administering or causing to be administered lethal doses of morphine sulphate (morphine) and midazolam (Versed)."

(dedicated to Allison, in Southeast Louisiana- Glad you and your family made it through ok)

Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are. ~Arthur Golden. Boy isn't that the truth.

When Katrina came to town, her winds stripped the buildings and the countryside, but she did much more. She stripped away the facades from some of the people, as the quote above says and in some cases what was revealed was very bad. Some of the people in the cities were stripped completely of their humanity. Survival was placed second to greed lust and anger. Looting can be the most basic of survival mechanisms, as the need for food and water and sometimes clothes outweighs respect for laws and property, and in most cases is forgivable, but, when the looting is for a TV set and DVD's, well you have to regard that as opportunistic, not survivalist. And while sex might qualify for a survival mechanism to some evolutionists, I just don't buy it when its rape. I am also at a loss to explain how shooting at the fireman and rescuers is a survival mechanism. Now, to be fair, I am certain that the overall percentage of people whose inner child was revealed to be a delinquent was small but it was much more prevalent then a lot of people were prepared for. The savagery stunned the nation I think, because we as Americans have this inflated self image that we are a nation of civilized people. In reality, it has been shown time and again we can revert to base animalism almost immediately, as witnessed in the Rodney King riots for example, or the WTO riots here in Seattle a few years ago. One other place saw the veneer of civilization stripped away, and that was in the comments of the politicians and activists. Almost as soon as Katrina was detected, the accusations flew. It seemed like mostly the left leaning people were blaming President Bush, first by claiming that the terrible Hurricanes were a result of global warming, and thus directly linked to our refusal to sign the Kyoto treaty. When scientists verified, in the New York Times of all places, that the storm pattern was normal, and in fact we had been running on borrowed time for a big one, they wasted no time in finding other complaints. Since it hit, we have heard all kinds of accusations, mostly directed at Bush and FEMA including: