In Katrina’s aftermath, it’s clear that we’re obviously still unprepared to handle a large-scale crisis after 9/11.

We can instantly send billions overseas when others are struck by catastrophe, but at home, we apparently can’t organize aid so quickly.

College boys and kids can manage it, but folks in Washington can only point fingers and shrug shoulders, claiming helplessness while even the media can wade in and pull people from flooded buildings.

Before Katrina, thanks to the Department of Homeland Security, we were supposed to feel safe even in a situation about which we’d have no warning, much like the events of 9/11 (OK, so there were warnings about 9/11; I won’t go there now). Yet, here we are again. This time, not only were there numerous clear warnings, but they also were entirely in the public eye, and yet, somehow, when the storm struck, the federal government’s reaction was preposterous in its lack of preparedness.

We can’t sit idly by and let this catastrophic failure go univestigated, and we certainly can’t let the investigations be managed by the very people who should be the subject of them.

There must be an independent council, which will be held accountable to every U.S. citizen, because if one of us suffers, we all suffer. We must come out of this assured that nothing like this will ever occur again.

Unless we cross that bridge together, surely we’ll all drown in the doubt created by this nasty quagmire of ineptitude.

Lucia Weinhardt, Durham