Hurricane Katrina was a Category 4 hurricane that just so happened to fall open and wreak havoc on a city that is nearly 70% black. While most of the hurricane trackings show Rita more likely to hit Texas than Louisiana, and with our heightened sensitivity towards hurricane relief and response, I suspect that there will be an outcry from the same groups of people who decried racism with Hurricane Katrina.

If the hurricane hits predominantly white areas, like Galveston County and Brazoria County, is this a Democrat storm? Was Katrina a Republican storm? Both will have occured under a Republican White House, and if left wing lunatics want to suggest that it is the Bush Administration's environmental policies that caused a hurricane to hit the predominantly black city of New Orleans, the same policies would have to also have had the power to create Hurricane Rita, which is due to hit predominately white counties in Texas. The only discrimination hurricanes exhibit is an inclination to attack the southern states, with an occassionaly stray going north. This is mother nature, not politics, not discrimination.

Not knowing much about the population of Texas cities, I don't know if there are any cities like New Orleans that have particularly large black populations. So, let's say one of the largely white cities get's hit hard, and all local, state and federal agencies perform outstandingly with an unprecedented evacuation and relief effort. Should this be the case, this will further enrage the race-baiters that New Orleans was specifically ignored--but, it won't be true.

The truth is that in the dys and months of Hurricane Katrina and the vast criticism (both legitimate and illegitimate) have made us ultra-sensitive to hurricanes. Now, with lessons already learned from Katrina, Hurricane Rita's timing is actually siginificant, in that it will put to the test the agencies at all levels, and following Rita, we will look back and evaluate. No one could doubt that our sensitivity to hurricanes today is infinitely greater than it was before Katrina--just the same as after 9/11 with terrorism.

Hurricane Katrina was a learning experience--Hurricane Rita will test our new found knowledge. Racism charges will likely be heard. If a black neighborhood or city is hit hard and authorities are even a half a second late in evacuating, it's racism. If a white neighborhood or city is attended to in apparent short order, there will be charges that the government secretly wanted to help the white areas, and ignore the black ones. If President Bush visits the area sooner than he did to Louisiana, it's racism.

This is the way it will go. The people that complain today about Katrina will complain harder no matter the circumstances with Rita. The response to Rita will be better than the response to Katrina, that alone will spark a slew of racism charges.

So will Hurricane Rita be racist? No, but the accusations following will be.