A Chicago Tribune Columnist Wrote an Insane Op-Ed Saying Hurricane Katrina Was a Good Thing

Most decent people would never wish a devastating natural disaster upon a city and its people – especially on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Unless you’re columnist Kristen McQueary, who wrote a mind-numbing op-ed in the Chicago Tribune yesterday wishing for something like Katrina to hit Chicago and probably sleeps on a stack of The Shock Doctrine.

It was originally published under the title “In Chicago, wishing for a Hurricane Katrina” but has since been changed to “Chicago, New Orleans, and rebirth,” a string of words whose vapidness are actually kind of fitting for McQueary’s argument. (The original version can still be found here).

The revised version also comes with a message that was tweeted out by the author shortly after overwhelmingly negative backlash started to roll in: “If you read the piece, it’s about finances and government. I would never diminish the tragedy of thousands of lives lost.”

You know what diminishes the tragedy of thousands of lives lost? Saying you “can relate, metaphorically, to the residents of New Orleans climbing onto their rooftops and begging for help and waving their arms and lurching toward rescue helicopters,” and “wishing for a real storm to hit Chicago — an unpredictable, haughty, devastating swirl of fury. A dramatic levee break. Geysers bursting through manhole covers. A sleeping city, forced onto the rooftops.”

McQueary’s point is that Katrina’s devastation ultimately paved the way for New Orleans to become a more functional state. She’s not the first person to support this notion – which certainly has merit and can be applied well beyond New Orleans – but it’s her way of expressing it that’s really troublesome.

She could have ended the piece after the first sentence: “Envy isn’t a rational response to the upcoming 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.” But of course it was followed with a but – and that’s when this thing went off the rails.

Perhaps Chicago will have another Great Fire and McQueary will finally be able to sleep at night.

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