Who is to blame?

Who is to blame for the failure of society to come to the aid of the people of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina?  We all are.  Let us not blame anyone in the Federal Government, the Louisiana state government, or the New Orleans city government but take it on ourselves.
Yes, each political entity failed in its responsibilities to the city.  The present administration has consistently brought forth the view that such aid is the responsibility of individual citizens and the private sector.  But individuals have come to expect that in a time of a horrific crisis such as Katrina, the federal government would be there.  So we start the rescue effort for the disaster with each person expecting someone else to do the job.
And when are we going to learn that when a disaster transcends multiple boundaries, that individuals and state organizations are not capable of handling the aftermath.  The people of New Orleans listened to their local and state officials and were trapped.
Would the reaction, local, state, and federal have been the same if this had been a terrorist attack?  Katrina has demonstrated just how incapable our federal government is in responding to a national catastrophe.  What can we expect if we are attacked by terrorists?  We have spent last four years hearing that we are in a war with terrorists; all of our resources have been directed toward that goal.  The movement of FEMA into the Homeland Security bureaucracy was directed towards the eventuality.  Many people do not feel any safer because of the presence of the Homeland security; how secure are we to feel if we don’t think we will be helped in any further tragedy?  
While we recover from the tragedy of Katrina, we must also look to future and prepare for whatever may come.  We have had this opportunity before but what have we learned?
People are pointing out that the lessons gained from disasters such as Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the Northridge earthquake in 1994 have quickly been forgotten.  We have not learned to anticipate what will happen.  
But this disaster was just waiting to happen.  If it had not been August of 2005, it might have been September of 2005; it might have been sometime next year.  But the fact of the matter is that it was going to happen.  We have been building levees around New Orleans since 1727.  While levees keep waters out of other areas, they also change the natural flow of the river.  There is at least one current scientific report that shows that the wetlands and delta south of New Orleans have been dramatically altered because of the levees.
What many people in the United States don’t know is that the Army Corps of Engineers spends a large amount of money keeping the Mississippi in its present river bed.  Just north of Baton Rouge is the Old River Project; a massive engineering project to keep the Mississippi from changing course and joining the Atchafalaya River (see http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/recreation/Recreation_Sites_Old_River.asp) for  details.
The fact that there are scientific reports on the destruction of the wetlands surrounding New Orleans and there are reports outlining the dangers a storm as such Katrina could present underscores the desperate problems of American education.  We may have one of the highest graduation rates in the world but that does not mean that our students and the population in general are capable of critical thinking.  The recent effort to bring accountability into the educational system has only and will only continue to mean that our students know how to memorize short bits of information.  Most students and their parents can not see the implication of their actions beyond today!  Many individuals, when presented with a bond initiative to improve local schools and libraries, vote against the bond initiative claiming that it is too expensive.
This is not a time to argue about the way public monies are spent.  It is probably true and there are probably better ways to spend the money (in general terms, I personally feel that administrators are paid too much and classroom teachers are not paid enough).  But the continued failure to fund our educational processes is beginning to show.  We are loosing the lead in technology to China and India and we are beginning to see the effects of not understanding what is happening to our world.
And the failure to understand what is happening in the world also means that people do not understand that they are the ones who can make the difference.  Our political process is quickly becoming the arena for a dedicated few who concentrate on what they want, not what is best for the country.  
The cry to do what you can for your country (as John Kennedy so eloquently spoke in 1960) is quickly becoming what can the country do for me?  The enthusiasm of the 60’s is quickly changing to cynicism and apathy.  Yes, I know there are those who feel that they must do something; but there are only a few.  Yes, I know that people have opened their wallets and written checks to help in the current disaster.  But have they learned?
What will happen when the next disaster occurs?  There will be disasters beyond what Katrina wrought and we cannot spend time thinking about who to blame.  While we recover and rebuild, hopefully better and safer than before, will we also be preparing for the next time?  If we do not do so, there will be no one to blame but ourselves.

Who are you?

This was to be my “blog” for August 28th; it is based on the common lectionary for that Sunday, the 15^th Sunday after Pentecost.

If you like what I write or would like to use what I write in some of your writings, please contact me. I use other sources that are not always marked in my writing. My e-mail address is TonyMitchellPhD@verizon.net

Have a good week!
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I am not a fan of the television show “CSI” or any of the other new crime genre shows. I think that they tend to oversimplify the analytical procedures used in forensic science and they glorify the process beyond what it is. This is not to say that the methods used in the shows are incorrect or not accurately portrayed; it is just that most of the analytical methods take longer than one hour. But, on television, the crime must generally be solved within sixty minutes for the show to stay on the air.

So I don’t watch “CSI” or any of its spin-offs. But, if the television is on, I know when the show is starting because of its theme music. The theme for the show is The Who’s “Who Are You?” Though I know the words and why the song was picked, I am not so sure that many of the people in the younger generation, for whom the show focuses, do. But my discussion today is more on the question the song asks rather than any crime that might need solving.

I was reminded of the song because of the Old Testament passage for this particular Sunday. Moses, tending the flocks of his father-in-law, encounters God via the burning bush. Moses’ reaction, as ours would be is, “Who are you?” God responses with the cryptic “I am who I am.” This phrase, in Hebrew, is the basis for Yahweh, the term often used to mean God.

As I said, Moses’ response is probably what we would expect and what I think we might say if we were in a similar situation. I also think that we would respond in much the same manner that Moses did when God asked him, Moses, to do something in His name.

Instead of “Who are you?” the query becomes “What gives you the authority to ask this of me?” And Moses also starts, as we would, to find reasons why he is not the person to whom God should entrust this task.

Nothing Moses does in this scene from the middle of an Arabian desert should seem strange or unusual. Granted, standing there watching a bush burn but not being consumed is rather strange and unusual but Moses’ responses are what we would expect because they are the responses we would give. When we encounter someone new, we are apt to ask who they are. And if this friend of ours should ask us to do something we often ask “by what right they have to ask or tell us to do that.”

When Hurricane Katrina first approached the Gulf Coast and authorities were telling people to leave, the response, for some, was this later response. Many choose to stay, feeling that they could ride out the storm as they had done many times before. Many also stayed because they had no other option.

But those, who had been given the opportunity to leave, found themselves faced with a storm stronger than anything they had ever imagined. Those who so quickly refused to head the warnings of authority quickly found out that there was no possible rescue because such an attempt would endanger too many lives.

What we have, with these two different groups (those that had the ability and opportunity to leave when they had the chance and those who had no ability to take advantage of the opportunity before them) is a clear reflection of the Gospel. Those without the ability to take advantage are those whom we need to be with, helping and assisting. Those who have the opportunity but refused on their own free will are like Peter in that moment following His declaration that Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus had asked His disciples “Who do the people say that I am?” He followed this up with a direct question to the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter was very emphatic in his declaration that Jesus was the Messiah, the fulfillment of God’s promise to His promise. But in the very next paragraph, the Gospel reading for today, Peter tries to stop Jesus from moving onwards to Jerusalem and the completion of the mission. Jesus asks Peter “by what authority he (Peter) has to stop the mission?”

This is the dilemma we are faced with when we are face to face with Christ. We know that without Christ in our lives, we are condemned to death. We know that with Christ, we are promised an everlasting life. But we must give up everything that we own and are in order to follow Christ; it is something that not many of us are willing to do. Every time Christ made this type of announcement, the number of those following Him grew smaller. People were not willing to follow in His footsteps if it meant giving up what they had on earth.

But, if we are to follow Christ, we must live a new life. No longer can we live in a world where violence is met with more violence. No longer can we live in a world where people take advantage of human misery and suffering for their own profit. In Paul’s letter to the Romans for this Sunday, he noted that we should feed and take care of our enemies. Rather than respond in kind to oppression, we should respond with love.

Clarence Jordan, the founder of Koinonia, tells the story about the time his daughter was being harassed by the school bully. Mr. Jordan stated that he was ready to forget all that he was saying and preaching about Christian love and use worldly methods to deal with this young man. But his daughter told him to let her solve the problem in her own way, to use Christian love. As she told her father, every time the boy came around, she gushed and proclaimed how glad she was to see him. Finally, the boy became so embarrassed that he quit coming around and harassing her and when he saw her coming, he turned away. By responding in love and kindness, the harassment stopped.

If, in a world of hatred, darkness, and despair, we bring some light and hope through our love, will the world not be a better place? If we respond to the Gospel message by bringing help to the oppressed, the sick, the needy, and lost souls of this world, will not the world be a better place? We have seen through this week what happens when people lose hope, when the promise of the future is bleak and dark. We are standing on the road and Jesus is asking “Who are you? Are you My disciple, willing to carry my cross and take the Gospel into the world?”

We are not happy!

We sent the following letter our Senators (Hilary Clinton and Charles Schumer) as well as our Representative (Sue Kelly). A copy was also sent to CNN. We will get a response from our representatives but it is more likely going to be a "canned" response. We are in a crisis and we have no leaders.
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For the past several days we have watched in horror as fellow Americans in New Orleans, Louisiana have been forced to live in conditions that we wouldn’t even let animals live in. The delay in giving the type of aid and assistance necessary to alleviate these horrendous conditions can be placed directly at the feet of the current Administration in Washington, DC.

The conditions which exist now in New Orleans are indicative of the attitudes of the Bush White House. Mr. Bush was quick to take us into war against Iraq but he’s a day late and a dollar in short when it comes to helping our own American citizens.

While we spend billions of dollars for a dubious war in Iraq, and have sent thousands of our young people to fight in this war, our own citizens go wanting. Now a national disaster, one that we have never seen in our history, has plunged this country into a nightmare, the proportions of which cannot be described.

President Bush’s response, as noted in today’s New York Times, was a day late. It was an unimpressive speech and one that showed that he has no connection with the real country.

It should also be noted that Congress has failed in its responsibilities to its constituents. As was noted on CNN, Congress rushed back to Washington to pass a law which interfered with one person’s family. But now, with Congress in session, where are the leaders of Congress. We applaud Senator Landrieu from Louisiana for being with the people of Louisiana but we have neither seen nor heard from either her colleague in the Senate or either of the two Senators from Mississippi. In a time when leadership is desperately needed, those whom we have elected are nowhere to be seen.

It is true that the National Guard’s first role is to support the Army and the Air Force. But the National Guard has always been the force that states could count on in times such as these. But our National Guard has been stretched to the limit; just as our Armed Forces have been stretched.

The looting and lawlessness that now seems to pervade New Orleans could have been avoided if the New Orleans city police and Louisiana state police did not have to take on tasks for which they were under-equipped and under-manned.

Second, why did this Administration not budget enough money to reinforce the levees surrounding New Orleans? From what I understand funds to accomplish reinforcement were requested for the past 8 years but New Orleans received only about 10% of the requested amount. This disaster has been seen and modeled in countless computer simulations. We knew what would happen; why did we not work to prevent it?

This disaster, far beyond anything ever imagined, will take more than simple compassion to resolve; it will take action not only by individuals and the private sector but by the government, elected by the people of this country to provide leadership.