If hurricane Katrina taught us anything, it is the price of doing "nothing." I use the word "nothing" advisedly. A category five hurricane (downgraded to a four) hits New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Region and sends economic ripples across the nation.

The cost to rebuild the city is estimated at $200 billion. My own estimate the actual cost will be several times greater. Why? Because the $200 billion will only return the city to a shadow of what it was.

New Orleans was one of America's most unique places, and it is that very uniqueness that is now under threat - but I will blog about that a bit later.

One of the first questions a business person asks is about profit. If your business is not making money, the IRS will call it a hobby - not-for-profit organizations not withstanding.

Blogs "Bequeathed Legacy Of Guaranteed Speech"

I asked a historian of women's issues, "in the 1920's, and recently, there were great strides for women's rights. Why did it fade away?"

The answer got was not one I expected. "It didn't. The media merely stopped reporting it."

Whether it is Tiananmen Square or Washington Square, if people can communicate, they can rally around a cause.

When there is a coup, what's one of the first things the leaders take over? Radio and television stations. In China, Internet phrases are banned. "Tiananmen Square" itself is forbidden speech.

This nation's founders added the First Amendment to the Constitution which, among other things, guarantees freedom of speech, the right to petition, and the right to peaceably assemble.

In Ben Franklin's day there was no mass media-certainly not on any real scale. It was "one if by land and two if by sea," merely lanterns in the Old North Church that alerted the locals of how the British troops were coming. The ways of communicating were few and limited. William Dawes and Paul Revere rode through the night on horseback, shouting that "the Red Coats are coming!" And from that comes our Second Amendment as Minutemen picked up their firearms to go out to fight.