President Bush's address to the nation last night on the terrible devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was precisely what a pained nation needed to hear.

Vast amounts of rebuilding assistance will come forward, investigations will be launched into failures in the initial response of officials at all levels, and the region will be rebuilt stronger and better than ever.

One wishes these reassurances had come earlier.

Still, the right things were said.

If the promises we heard last night are kept — and Bush must have the cooperation of Congress and state and local officials — then the region might indeed emerge from this stronger and better.

While the president's talk touched on many areas, he was particularly impressive — and frank — in recognizing the pervasive poverty in the region that contributed to much of the immediate suffering, and that will make the task of rebuilding that much harder.

The "deep persistent poverty" of the region "has its roots in a history of racial discrimination," Bush said.

He's right. And if the rebuilding plan includes a sincere effort to root out those patterns of poverty and discrimination, it will be remembered as far more than one of the biggest physical rebuilding efforts in the history of our nation. It has the potential to be remembered as a defining moment in repairing a serious flaw in our country's social fabric.

Bush mentioned three specifics in his plan to rebuild not just physical damage, but the wounds of poverty: