While at work today, I peeked onto cnn.com to get the latest about the goings-on in New Orleans and the rest of that striken area. The news just left me speechless. The chaos that seems to have enveloped New Orleans is beyond description. All I could think of as I read of the fights that broke out near the buses that were there to help move some of these people from the Superdome were the images we see in third world countries where people clambor around the back of a truck that is passing out small bags of rice although I cannot recall seeing these people shoot and kill one another or take shots at the truck that is carrying the goods.
It is just as it has been said: disasters like Katrina bring out the best in people .... and the worst. I have faced no hardship in my life. I have been blessed since the start. I am a child of hard-working parents who took care of my siblings and me. We were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but we did not know what it was like to do without. With this kind of background, it is impossible for me to even imagine what it must be like down there right now for these folks who could not (or would not) leave in the face of what was at one time a category 5 storm.
Whether I can empathize or not does not stop my heart from sinking with each story. I would love to believe that I would not behave that way even in desperation, but then I've not had to watch my own children suffer so. The looters who are carrying armloads of electronics and clothing and smiling while they run have accepted their own reward; they just don't know it yet. And I'm glad that the police seem to realize that it's just not worth shooting anyone over. At this point, it seems that the best the police can do is to try and keep the people from killing one another.
The Red Cross, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, and our local churches are calling out for our help. We are being inundated with genuine refugees. May they truly find the presence of Christ in the hearts and minds and homes of fellow citizens.
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