Cross-country flights leave plenty of time for the news. Post-flood Louisiana looting. Fighting and raping in the lawless Superdome, now a den of anarchy where ruthlessness, hopelessness, fear and greed seem to rule.
Fine, friendly and generous people in any other “normal” circumstance, i.e. at work, with friends at a restaurant, at a child’s ball game, in a mall…or even on a laptop in a cool, air-conditioned airport with I-tunes and Starbucks in tow. Hard to imagine such genteel civility morphing to barbarism.
But when the right—rather, WRONG--situation arises, with a lethal mix of imprisonment, scarcity, desolation and isolation, rare it would be for even a Saint to remain so. I’m reminded of Winthorp (Dan Aykroyd) in Trading Places, but tragically, this southern scene is no made-for-TV reality show.
The malefactors of evil—birthed this time by Mother Nature--appear to dominate. [Query: Does evil become less so when from the hand of God instead of from man?]. Yet we know that the good far outweighs the bad. Certainly there are countless acts of human kindness throughout that troubled land.
And millions more beyond. The fellow next to me on the plane is meeting his friend in Atlanta and will then drive all night to their boat in the gulf to help in the rescue operation. A sympathetic America is rushing to send money, supplies and volunteers. And at last, the National Guard and government aid is making its way.
It is a great opportunity for unity in a cause greater than any one individual or group. It is a time for sharing and sacrifice for the greater good. It is, in short, the most crystallized example of government’s purpose and the good it—WE—can do when properly focused.
Thus, I was stung with irony at the day’s other news items:
1) The Bush Administration had cut FEMA’s budget and stature since they took office, specifically cutting flood protection in the New Orleans levies;
2) Lack of government oversight allowed developers to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that might have held back the hurricane’s surge;
3) The same experts who foresaw this inevitable tragedy say that man-made global warming will increase the intensity of future hurricanes;
4) Tennessee has dropped 200,000 working poor from its health care program, Tenn-Care, for budgetary reasons.
Each of these items shows the corruption of governmental purpose and potential from within by self-interest, greed and ideology that are too often opposed to the Greater Public Interest.
Yet, those who are the quickest to condemn and shrink government are the FIRST to flood it with demands for aid when they are in need, whether it be corporate subsidies, tax breaks, bail-outs, or direct aid when storms wreak havoc.
The Gulf catastrophe clarifies our crying need for government that is responsive to this Greater Public Interest, much like the Crash and Depression did in the 1930’s.
Better the day that we embrace this need when the seas of life are calm.
Richard F. Dawahare 9/3/05
2 comments:
I have been thinking, the wing-nuts are usually the ones who beg to constitutionally protect the flag. Many conservatives also believe, incorrectly, that the Pledge of Allegiance has been outlawed. They howl and scream and raise lots of money by pointing to "liberal attacks" on these patriotic symbols. And yet, I am struck by the thought that the symbolism of our flag and the words in our pledge are the antithesis of many Conservative's ideology.
"One nation..."
"Indivisible.."
"With liberty and justice for ALL" (emphasis added)
When Katrina struck, and the poorest of our neighbors needed help, 25 years of neo-conservatism had so changed the dialogue, that people could actually say it was the victims' fault with a straight face.
I hope out of this tragedy there will come a new dialogue, and a new way of looking at the poor, the ill and the "least of these."
More later.
You said it ALL, brother. And being a bayou brother at that, you KNOW whence you speak!
We shall keep the faith and press on.
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