Editorial

Early on the morning of September 11, 2001, I was a newly minted warehouse supervisor for a farmers cooperative.

At 9:05 Monday night, State Department spokesman Ned Price issued a plaintive message to the new rulers of Afghanistan. “The Taliban needs to meet its commitments and obligations in Afghanistan,” Price tweeted. Those commitments and obligations include respecting freedom of travel, safeguarding the “basic rights of the people,” engaging in counterterrorism, “not carrying out reprisal violence against those who stayed” in Afghanistan and “forming an inclusive government.”

The time has come for us to give back to those affected by Hurricane Ida in southeast Louisiana.

Regarding the national news media’s freakout over President Biden’s role in the Taliban’s seizure of Afghanistan, we haven’t seen such passionate unanimity among the Washington commentariat since they went all-in on invading Iraq back in 2003.

Hurricane Laura wrecked southwest Louisiana a year ago, leaving marks of devastation that remain evident today in bluetarped roofs, damaged homes and boardedup businesses that still dot the region. For the people who live there, the suffering seems even worse because they feel forgotten.