We have been visiting New Orleans every year for Southern Decadence and The Jazz Festival, for several years. The city was magic. It was warm, welcoming, accepting and a pure joy to behold. I have traveled many places, to many countries and New Orleans stands out as one of the truly incredible places on the planet. My heart is breaking, or is broken. I cannot fathom the destruction, the loss of life, the lack of response, the complete lack of concern for human life. I never in my life could imagine that the images of I have seen, the stories I have read, could possibly take place on American soil. Had the timing been slightly different, and Katrina struck just one week later, my partner and I would have been in New Orleans for the Labor Day weekend. I still don't know if it was a blessing to have dodged the proverbial bullet or a curse that we weren't there. I still can't, and don't know if I ever will be able to reconcile in my heart and mind, what has happened. Regardless of my personal attachment to New Orleans, this country as a whole has been damaged and scarred, I fear, beyond repair. Heartlessness and callousness, lessens all of us.