Morbyd
Moderator
N8 said:I think people were just shocked that a disaster brought out the absolute worst in american society and showed america in such a bad light while compare this to how similar disasters in other countries (tsunami, iran earthquake etc) made the whole population come together and work as a community/nation to help the people effected.
That's what you saw on television, in wire service reports, and in foreign newspapers. If you read some of the US newspaper accounts (I prefer the Washington Post), you realize that it was just a small element that committed crimes. Most people pulled together and helped each other out. There's stories of people opening their homes across the country (I saw one story about one guy in a 1-room apartment ready to take in three guests!), there's shelters opened up everywhere especially in Texas, there are volunteers feeding people. $440 million has been pledged by US citizens to the Red Cross for the relief effort... in one week!
The downside was the federal government response, which was woefully slow. I think there were several causes for that, mainly related to poor planning and bureaucracy.