Natural Disasters of the 21st Century

It saddens us all to absorb the fact that Hurricane Katrina devastated the homes and lives of over 500,000 persons in the state of Louisiana alone; the displacement caused by this natural seasonal occurrence is simply immeasurable at the moment. The storm simply referred to as "Katrina" is still making its way north towards Canada as of Wednesday, and it shows no signs of relenting. (Oh, and mind you, Katrina had made a surprise visit in southern Florida resulting in power outages of multiple days just 72 hours prior to impacting New Orleans.)

It is inevitable that an association between Katrina and Mother Nature take place. The 21st Century, to date, has known nothing but negative and destructive behavior. Maybe Nostradamus was right, maybe the 90's were the finest years before total chaos. And to make matters worse, Nostradamus was seemingly speaking directly about the United States of America.

The citizens of the United States have been victims of political fraud -- twice -- on the George W. Bush election and re-election nights of 2000 and 2004, respectively. They have been victims of civilian fraud when the attacks known as "9/11" took place on September 11th, 2001, in New York City. They have been victims of civic fraud -- twice -- when the United States Congress decided, and reaffirmed a number of years later, to pass the "Patriot Act," a political maneuver to reduce the civil liberties of its own citizens. They have been victims of economic fraud with petrolium prices skyrocketing from a measly $2/gallon to over $7/gallon as of today. They have been victims of military fraud as their Commander in Chief, George W. Bush, and his foes have commandeered the various military arms to launch a deceptive war against an unidentifiable opponent in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have been victims of celebrity fraud when its most-recognized celebrities are either impregnated, divorced, killed, or commit suicide. Heck, they have even been victims of educational, religious and scientific frauds as the nation's citizens are disallowed to properly study evolution and understanding of the human body (stem cell research).

We cannot forget technological fraud (service outages are rampant, as Vonage experiences too often), engineering fraud (Amtrak is facing terrible service maintenance difficulties), cinematographic fraud (99.99% of the movies are not worth $10 these days), entertainment fraud (dance clubs are shuttering all too frequently in New York City, for instance), comedic fraud (almost nobody is funny anymore), athletic fraud (doping in any sport), employment fraud (unemployment and poverty rates are not looking pretty), and even immigration fraud ("we ran out... oh wait, we found 25,000 more applications... okay, we really ran out... no, no, there's more H1-B Visas available...").

And as of this week, the United States fell victim to totally devastating natural disasters (categorized as meteorological fraud). The citizens of the United States should not lay dormant or negligent of this destructive behavior! How many victims are needed before change is demanded?!

It is quite feasible that change does not occur in the United States in the 21st Century. It is quite possible that its destructive behavioral pattern remains as citizens of the United States appear to be passive on this topic. Or, this is the long and windy road known as "the future" to which the United States will lose its place in the ever-evolving world we live in. It is not impossible to imagine Canada, China, Russia, or the European Union becoming the dominant player in the game of modern living.

As a matter of fact, I propose a challenge! The citizens of the United States of America, do you accept the challenge of making your country a better place? If so, then how do you intend on succeeding despite all of this adversity that is immensely difficult to overtake? And if you succeed, will you be alive to see it?