[honeychile]

I think we have become desensitized to catastrophe. We were also talking about it at work - one thought was that it began when Viet Nam was daily televised.

I had to take a step back to realize that, had I not had a connection to each of the 9/11 attacks (lived in the shadow of the WTC; interviewed a Fairfax county fireman days before the Pentagon was attacked, then saw him on tv; and of course, Somerset is so close), would I have been so emotionally disturbed by it to this day? If my cousin was not volunteering in the Gulf, would Katrina have meant much more than a terrible hurricane?

We have the news on at work all day (unless I'm by myself). There's really a limit to how much you can listen to it before it becomes yet another "show" - and how I hate saying that!