Blame game, no. Preparedness, yes.

The much-publicized blame game for Hurricane Katrina is one of the biggest exercises in futility and wasted energy I have ever seen in my life. You may point the finger at any figure or figures you like, but the bottom line is that much of the pain and suffering was caused by a plain and simple lack of preparedness from a lot of different quarters - and could have been alleviated more quickly or avoided entirely if people were better prepared.

Though these days people have been conditioned to turn to the government to take care of more and more of their basic needs and necessities (and we are seeing the ultimate consequences of this mentality rearing their ugly head in New Orleans), let's face it, local, state and national governments can only do so much for people caught in a disaster - even under the best of circumstances when aid can reach those who need it, law and order are practiced and enforced, and optimal efficiency, coordination, and organization are in place. It is incumbent on each of us as individuals to assume personal responsibility for our own safety and well-being, take the initiative, and prepare so that we can take care of ourselves and one another and be okay when disaster strikes.

This guide has a lot of practical tips and suggestions that everybody out there can adopt, regardless of their race, ethnicity, income bracket or socioeconomic background. Preparedness, or the lack thereof, isn't a black thing. It isn't a white thing. It's a HUMAN thing. And it's time we all recognized this and acted accordingly.

Put together a plan. Memorize it. And be ready and able to implement it when the time comes. I say when, not if, because even though there probably won't be another natural weather-related disaster on the same scale as Katrina in our lifetime, there WILL be other hurricanes, as well as tornadoes, floods and fires, a major quake in southern California at some point in the future, and terrorist attacks.

None of which will give a damn what color their victims are, by the way. The levees and the flooding didn't care what color(s) the people of New Orleans were. To assert that NOLA wasn't saved because it's a black town, is simply ridiculous. No one in their rational mind can argue, given New Orleans' rich, complex history and heritage, its economic value as a huge tourism draw and the Gulf region's largest and most critical shipping port, its strategic value as the location for most major American petroleum and chemical refineries, etc. etc. that the federal government and all the people outside of NOLA who were watching this tragedy unfold were thinking "Oh, my stars. These great black unwashed and their silly, silly antics. Pish-tosh! A glass of Veuve, my good man, to wet my privileged white whistle as I fiddle while Rome burns!!" To say that the NOLA disaster was a black thing is just plain race-baiting, and vastly oversimplifies the situation and diverts the focus from what the real problem is. How about taking a look at the corrupt officials who figuratively stood dithering in the highway for days, never implemented their own damn evac plan and basically told the victims "Screw you, yer on yer own" before and after they issued the initial evac order and the levees broke. The disaster, although huge proportions of blacks engaged in all areas of human activity were involved because it's a mostly black town demographically speaking, was NOT a RACISM thing. It was an INEPTITUDE, UNPREPAREDNESS, and STUPIDITY (stupidity on the part of politicians at all levels, that is) thing.