The Larger Shame.

After 9/11, U.S. born citizens were surprised to find out the rest of the world did not necessarily worshiped them.

After Katrina, U.S. born citizens were surprised to find out they had poor people living among them.

But Hurricane Katrina also underscores a much larger problem: the growing number of Americans trapped in a never-ending cyclone of poverty. And while it may be too early to apportion blame definitively for the mishandling of the hurricane, even President Bush's own administration acknowledges that America's poverty is worsening on his watch. [Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times]