Katrina

The last few days have been rather sobering. During spare minutes, I've found myself returning to the New Orleans Times-Picayune blog over and over, to read the latest updates about the conditions. I've been struck by the power and the limitations of blogging during this time. It was blogs that I read constantly on the night of and the day after, and it was blogs that allowed the most widespread accumulation of information. Even one of New Orleans' TV stations has been blogging regularly. Additionally, the blogosphere has attempted to rally the troops by having a "blogburst" of recommendations of charities. The effort has naturally been spearheaded by Instapundit. However, I'm having a tough time seeing what sort of impact an echo chamber of recommendations will have, other than demonstrating good-will toward the people in N.O. and letting people know about charities they might not have otherwise. Increased awareness seems to be the extent of the blogging communities ability to tackle this issue. I'm not cynical--I'm for raising awareness, in fact. I blog, and love blogging. I also have thought about what more the blogosphere could do, and beyond actually giving money and keeping track of the amount of donations garnered through the effort, I'm at a loss. More than anything, I've come up against the limits of blogging, and they can be frustrating. Update: I decided to leave the above. Shortly after writing it, I found the following quote from Ed Morrisey (ht: Hewitt): I'm bumping this to 9/1 to serve as my bleg post for CQ readers to donate what they can to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I want to add a few words to the above post first. One of the proudest and, ironically, humbling moments as a blogger came at the beginning of the year, after the deadly tsunami killed almost a quarter of a million people throughout Asia. I asked CQ readers to step up and donate what they could to provide relief for the hundreds of thousands of survivors, who had to live through hell while trying to piece their lives and homes together again. I privately hoped to raise $5,000; together, the CQ community donated over $35,000. Limits. Who says blogging has limits?