It is now Wednesday and the President has yet to address the nation. New Orleans is a lost city. This isn't a state or regional catastrohe. It's a national catastrophe. New Orleans has ceased to exist as a functioning city. There are now approximately 1 million refugees along the Gulf Coast. ONE MILLION! No homes, no jobs, no sanitation, no electricity and for many, no prospects for either for months, if at all. In other words no hope. The scenario is more than catastrophic -- it's apocalyptic. Things are continuing to deteriorate. And desperate people are going to do desperate things.

When are we going to hear from the president? And I don't mean condolences and sympathy. The full resources of this nation should now be oriented to New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast. I want to hear the President say that all military engineering and construction units currently in the U.S. are now deploying to the Gulf Coast. I want the President to say that he has spoken personally with the CEOs of major U.S. companies and has asked them to donate by shipping water, diapers, clothes, etc, etc. to Red Cross and Salvation Army distribution points. I want the President to say that he is mobilizing Guard and Reserve units in other states to send to the Gulf Coast to assist in cleanup, evacuation, and policing. I want the President to say that he is establishing a Public Works program so that residents of New Orleans can start working to restore their communities instead of sitting in refugee centers. I want the President to directly ask everyone in the U.S. to take in their displaced relatives, for schools in unaffected areas to take in students whose schools no longer exist, for companies in cities around the U.S. to hire or relocate employees who now have no hope of employment anytime soon in New Orleans, even if they have no job openings. I want the president to ask every church in the nation to adopt a refugee family, relocate them, get their kids in school, find the parents jobs. Bottom line is we have to get people back to work and kids in school in the short term, wherever that may be. Reinhabiting New Orleans for many, especially the poor and already destitute, will never, ever happen.

I want the President to say he is leading the effort and that these are all the things he has directed the federal government to do and asked others to do. He has to give them hope for the future (even if they can't see or hear him). Maybe he just needs to give the rest of us hope. Tonight would be a good night for his press conference.