DANIEL ROTHCHILD SAYS THAT CONTRARY TO REPORTING, there’s no shortage of post-Katrina leadership on the Gulf Coast:

The tendency of journalists to look first to political leaders-who, to say the least, usually have other motives for pushing a narrative-and big names explains why so much of the media has gotten post-Katrina New Orleans so wrong. Turning first to the great and the good to get the story is an easy mistake to make in a society where everything from the foods we eat to the way we garden is subject to the whims of the ruling class.

But leadership isn’t something you are elected into. There have been plenty of leaders on the Gulf Coast over the last two years. It’s just that their names don’t roll off the tongues of magazine editors, or appear in newspapers or campaign ads.

If there’s any good news to come out of the recovery effort it’s that people in the hurricane zone have learned to become less reliant on political saviors and more reliant on themselves.

Read the whole thing.