Katrina Memories and Blogging Fatigue

A year ago, I stopped writing at my previous blog, The Yellow Line. I'm not shutting down Maverick Views, but I have been taking a bit of break.

Last year, I became terribly disillusioned by the world of blogs in the wake of hurricane Katrina. I would read these posts about how the people of New Orleans were to blame because they were too ignorant to leave -- as if there is no moral imperative to help those who are having trouble helping themselves. If a man walks in front of a bus do we just leave him in the street because, hey, he should have been smart enough to look both ways?

And then there were those claiming the government response was more than adequate ... that the horror was a media exaggeration. These writers were more concerned with defending an outdated bureaucracy run by semi-incompetents than they were with examining how the system failed and what could be done to fix it.

And finally, there were those who cared only about using the tragedy as a political hammer with which to beat President Bush. While the President certainly deserved some of the blame because, after all, he is in charge of the executive branch, it was wrong for certain people to pretend that local and state officials weren't equally to blame.

So I threw in the towel and shut down my blog. I no longer wanted to be a part of a community that held such cynical views of the world.

Of course, I realized at the beginning of this year that I did want to be a part of one specific blog community--the centrist community. While I don't always agree with the writers listed on the right side of this page, I respect them because they don't just repeat the party line. They give the world thought. And that's a nice rarity.

So, as I take my little break, do go read the blogs to which I link. It's worth your time.