I love the thoughtful feedback I get from readers, so I'd like to highlight some responses I got to a column I wrote two weeks ago on the outpouring of help for Katrina victims.

All the fund-raisers were "wonderful," I wrote, lauding even those that seemed self-serving (e.g., stores donating a small portion of profits). My point was that Katrina was so devastating that all help was welcome.

I was afraid some businesses would take issue with my perception that some efforts seemed self-serving. But the only complaint I got was from Kile Law of Blue Water Spa, who agreed there were "some businesses who might view this tragedy as an opportunity to get more business." The N&O seemed to lump all fund-raising events together, Law said, and that made her "one unhappy gal."

(Blue Water Spa is donating 100 percent of revenue on the first Sunday of each month for the rest of 2005 to the Red Cross.)

"Then, I read your column," Law wrote. "Thank you for putting things in perspective for me. ... Now, I wish that all restaurants would give 5 percent of your bill to hurricane relief. If everybody did SOMETHING, even something small and perhaps self-serving, it would make a big difference."

I also opined that unimaginable disasters bring about great humanitarian responses. Among the unimaginable aspects of Katrina I cited were: "the slow federal response that allowed people to die," and the horror of rape in the Superdome.

Steve Wood argued that the federal response was delayed by state and local problems. He may be right, but let me make it clear I was faulting the slow response -- whoever was to blame.

He also wrote: "I have been unable to find, in your newspaper or elsewhere, any documented cases of rape of evacuees in the Superdome."

Indeed, those reports are murky. New Orleans' mayor and police chief have both said they occurred, but hard evidence has been elusive.