Philosophy As Our Shared Inquiry Into 'Why?'

Something happening in a cataclysmic way--via an act of Nature such as Hurricane Katrina (even though questions of human induced 'global warming' could possibly be tied to the intensity of the storm itself)--are not immune from philosophical inquiry. Even those who have not gone to Dartmouth and majoured in Political Philosophy, or taken an introductory course in Philosophy at their local Community College, still ask the question 'Why?'

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina people began to wonder why help was not more forthcoming. Was their only a material reason for the lack of help (i.e., roads out, bridges washed away, supplies were short, masses of citizens and government not yet mobilized), or was there a political reason, a racial reason--a reason based upon the division of classes that still so much exists in what is supposed to be the most free of all Nations?

To me, the prevalence of the 'Why?' question is direct evidence for humanity's inherent philosophical tendencies, even in the immediate aftermath of a monumental tragedy. People want to understand. People thirst for meaning. Why are troops mobilized so quickly for white-folk and not for black-folk? How come so many underprivileged African-Americans were forced to ride out a Category 5 Hurricance in a football stadium of all places, only to be shuttled to another one in Houston days later? Why are so many left to live (or is it die?) in squalor?

These questions have been with us for some time now. It is only the nature of recent events that have stripped away a Nation's denial and shown us how much work there is yet to be done in the name of social justice (work to be done on both/all sides of the divide). Questions that have been asked by some of the world's greatest social prophets---Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X to name but some of the most prominent few. Questions that make philosophy as important as it ever, as important as it is now, and as important as it will be well into the future. So long as there are those who are made to suffer more than others are, we will ask 'Why?'