A Time for Action, Not Outrage

Mother Nature delivered her own version of "shock and awe" on Monday, leaving the Gulf Coast with the kind of death and destruction that only America's worst enemies could applaud. Without firing a shot or dropping a bomb, Hurricane Katrina pulverized Mississippi, Louisiana and parts of Alabama, wreaking havoc on the lives of hundreds of thousands, as well as the nation's economy, for months to come.

But Katrina did more than lay waste to lives and property. She also taught us a few things about ourselves.

We now know, if we ever needed reminding, that our ranks are filled with humanitarians. They were in evidence in New Orleans, lifting stranded residents off rooftops, ferrying others in boats, delivering life-sustaining supplies, comforting the despondent.

Katrina also brought us the faces of the detestable -- the rabble who tear through the rubble, feeding off the property and misery of others: those for whom a decent society has no use.

And it was the sight of the looting in New Orleans that prompted M.J. of Laurel to e-mail me on Wednesday with this message:

"Most people, especially non-blacks like me, cannot understand what makes black people want to go 'berserk' after a hurricane. Seems the media's cameras only show blacks looting Foot Lockers, Wal-Marts etc. Is that possible??? Is that something that only happens in poor black neighborhoods? Is it a race thing or a poverty thing? Why don't we see Asians, whites or other races doing this or is this something the media only shows when blacks do it???

"Either way, this sight disgusts most reasonable people . . . "

M.J. is hardly alone. Looting in the wake of Katrina was sickening. It wasn't the foraging for food, milk, diapers and toiletries that was upsetting. That part was understandable. It was the smashing of windows to steal watches, television sets, DVDs and guns that was despicable.

It all goes to show what happens when some people get it in their heads that they can take things that don't belong to them without getting caught. All it takes is a time and place where authority is absent. Bring on such a scene for those predators and opportunists always lurking in our midst and, bingo, you have your looters.

But M.J. wasn't asking why people loot. He wanted to know why, in this time of widespread misery and ruin, black people are doing all that plundering.

First, to state the obvious: The people caught stealing on camera in that majority-black city weren't doing it because they were black. Just as raiders of corporate treasuries don't do it because they are white. Skin color has nothing to do with the urge to take what doesn't belong to you. Poverty also isn't the reason liquor gets stolen in a storm-ravaged city.

The looter on Canal Street in New Orleans and the corporate looter on Wall Street have a similar motive: greed. That is their taproot. And greed is no respecter of pigmentation, income, status or social class.