America's underclass dies prematurely every day. They perish from diseases that take them before those who can afford better health care. They succumb to the violence that takes the young in too many neighbourhoods. They are casualties of rampant drug use born of despair. But, until last week, they did not die in such numbers, 24 hours per day on cable TV news. Their bodies didn't lie unattended on city streets or wash up in floodwaters. They weren't herded into areas of unimaginable squalor because they didn't have the means to do better. Hurricane Katrina has exposed America's cursed underbelly,...