(orginally posted to MORPH - the MediaCenter blog).

I've been trying to find a way to reconcile 9/11 and Katrina. They are both terrible things.

The parallels are hard to ignore.

We had warnings about 9/11. We ignored them.
We had warnings about the potential for a catastrophic failure of the levees.

On Sunday, it will be the fourth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. I always consider this a somber time, a terrible time. And I’ve been frustrated the past two years as the drumbeat to "move on" has become louder. Moving on seems to come without any wisdom, or understanding, or complex questioning about the events of that day. For me, 9/11 remains immediate and urgent and painful and visible.

And as I watch the images from New Orleans, I can't help but see the comparisons. Storms don't arrive without warning; they "brew" before they strike. And people who ignore storm warnings do so at their peril. I don't mean to suggest the residents of the Gulf Coast ignored warnings - those who had the ability to evacuate most certainly did. Just listen to the stories and you know that those who stayed behind - save a few brave or stubborn souls - were left there, stranded there by decisions that kept transportation solutions limited to those who could drive or fly. No trains, no buses, no transit for the masses. They would ride the storm out without any protection from the elements.

In lots of ways 9/11 reflected this same willingness to ignore storm clouds. The Towers had been attacked before. The government knew of the pilots training. We knew that Bin Laden had talked of flying planes into tall buildings. But we're invincible. We couldn't be touched. We're a superpower, a Nation Among Nations. And journalists don't cover "what if" stories well when they may cross the line from fact to fiction... they're merely theories UNTIL they happen.

Well. It's been a painful, deadly, humbling four years. The cost in terms of human suffering is hard to tally - perhaps uncountable. Lives destroyed. Homes lost. Businesses ruined. But more subtle and widespread is a sense that we're not safe, that danger could arrive on our doorstep at any moment. And what's perhaps most frightening is that the men and women whose leadership we count on in times like these seem somehow startlingly smaller than they were just a few days ago.

I'm not taking sides here, because when the blame is doled out there will be plenty of Democrats and Republicans to point fingers at. I'm talking more about the ability to lead, to galvanize, to provide a coherent vision of the future that is more than just empty words and promises of a "stronger America" and a lot of "hard work" in the future.

Some have suggested that in light of Katrina, remembering 9/11 seems like something that should wait. But I reject that concept just as I reject the fact that the Iraq war can't be debated and discussed. I don't think Americans are required to process one story at a time, and in fact I would suggest that in an increasingly complex word, stacking problems up in a linear fashion is a sure-fire way to invite the next Katrina. After all, there was plenty of information that said the levee system was frail and could be breached... it just wasn't urgent enough to get paid attention to.

It may be that the media needs to embrace the concept of concurrent calamities. That problems need to be looked at with a longer lens. Is Katrina connected to global warming? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that I haven't seen a moment of media coverage or discussion about the long-term questions of weather-related catastrophes. The public doesn't "get" global warming, a news executive friend of my confided. Hmm... What other complex problems doesn't the public "get?"

Isn't it our job to engage complex stories (not just horrible photogenic ones) and find a way to make them gettable? That way, we can begin to face problems before they reach our shores.

There are more than a few storms brewing right now.