by Paul Jacob

Now that government has finally caught up with the Katrina disaster, and armed guards march the streets of New Orleans, some people are saying "too little, too late."

But I'm wondering if it isn't the case of "too much, too late." Local governments didn't do well, and the federal government that says it's there to help us in times of need wasn't very timely.

And now, as the flood waters are being pumped out, after the worst is over and most of the people evacuated the city, the National Guard and other helpful people from the government, elaborately armed, seem to be dead set on getting every last straggler out of the city.

Trouble is, some people refuse to leave their homes.

It's hard not to sympathize with these people. They survived. They are more fearful of their government, and the uncertainty outside New Orleans, than with the possible diseases that they are told will run through the city in the aftermath of the tragedy.

What with all the government failures, these people have every reason to be skeptical. And stay at home.

They may not be heroic, they may even be betting on the wrong horse of the wrong apocalypse, but haven't they earned the right to stay in their homes? Mightn't the government forces now patrolling the streets actually help these folks, instead of try to pry them from their homes, and, now I read, even confiscate their lawfully-owned guns?

Well, I'm sure things will change daily. And we'll all learn contradictory lessons. But that old lesson, about the government being there to help us? It still seems bitterly ironic, to me.

This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.

Common Sense is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org