Wk 00*** Hurricane Katrina: How Should I Respond?
Thousands of New Orleans residents mill around Like many people across the country, including FEMA, for the first four days of the Katrina disaster I was in shock, awed by the expanse of destruction as shown by the news media and immobilized by the inability to conceptualize a positive outcome, or to visualize any outcome at all. There were miles and miles of destruction. Some 90,000 square miles were declared disaster areas. As I watched the tragedy unfold, I was sickened and overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands of victims; and after a couple of days, as the disaster grew worse, I began to feel bad for all the people trying to help. Emergency evacuation centers were collapsing and emergency aid from around the country had no place to be delivered. There were no safe places to affect a rescue. It was a hopeless catastrophe.
My own feelings of hopelessness began to invade my daily routine, especially my ritual of morning prayers. From the start, I had been praying for the victims’ survival and for expediency in the disaster relief efforts. But day after day, no relief came. It seemed that President Bush, FEMA, The Red Cross, and even God were at a loss for an appropriate response. The tragedy continued to grow as hospitals and safe zones became flooded with desperate people; and then the levies broke. The situation was hopeless. I asked God: “What can I do? Should I send money?” Obviously, no amount of financial support could buy these people the miracle they needed.
I was definitely at a loss for an answer. For four days I watched every news program I could, trying to find a solution. And I prayed -- a lot. When I saw the roof of the Superdome blow off and the levies break open, I knew that efforts to provide relief were futile. Instead of sending massive amounts of aid into the erupting epicenter, or to the overloaded and deteriorating perimeter, we needed to evacuate the masses of people out -- far out. We needed an immediate solution for a long term problem and we needed a long term solution for an immediate problem. That means we needed to provide both housing and social services immediately and for the long term. The only way to do that would be to provide houses already built and social services already in place. FEMA should have drafted every tour bus company and every major airline into the service of our country, as if we were at war. The Katrina victims should have been airlifted to every major city across the US, and then distributed to hospitals, clinics, homeless shelters, churches and charitable organizations where the social service infrastructure was already in place. That became an obvious solution to me, but it took four days for me to see it.
The news media was quick to report that 30% of New Orleans’ population is living in abject poverty. I thought I was poor, but I am no where near as poor as these 30%. Reports of abject poverty in this disaster are ill-placed by the media, apparently intended to sensationalize the drama and to make the disaster appear worse. Katrina is a disaster that stands on her own merit. If anything, the wealthy 70% should have been exploited to sensationalize the news. They had great wealth and lost everything. The impoverished 30% had nothing to lose, so even though they lost everything, as did the rich, they lost very little. Katrina is a hidden blessing to the poor, because poverty is washed away. Now the poor are as wealthy as everyone else, and the wealthy as poor. This really played heavy on my heart, because now I am wealthier than 100% of the people in New Orleans, and in much of the disaster area, but I am too poor to be of any help.
As I prayed for the victims of the hurricane and tried to have empathy for them, I began to feel guilty for being so wealthy. Although I am disabled, on fixed income, receiving financial aid for college, and do not have any emergency funds or savings, I am blessed to own my own house, and to be able to pay most of my bills on time. More significant to my guilt, I realized I have a lot of stuff in my house; a lot of personal possessions I would hate to lose. Seeing a million people lose everything, and seeing that I still have so much of everything, I began to feel survivor’s guilt.
By Friday, day five of the disaster, I felt so guilty that I finally looked up http://www.redcross.org/ on the Internet. Good credit is something else with which I have been blessed, or maybe cursed, so I charged a small donation to the American Red Cross and specified it for Katrina Relief. I figured if I could charge my own daily pleasures like gas, food, and telephone bills, then I should be able to charge an emergency donation for Katrina. I also sent a long email detailing my proposed solution to evacuate everyone. While I was writing the email, God spoke to me about the measly donation I had just made. I could have charged a lot more. But that was not the answer. What the people in New Orleans needed more than money was a place to live, and they needed it now. I offered to take a family into my house, immediately.
I am a single parent and my three children are grown and living on their own. I live by myself in a single family dwelling. I have access to all the local social services. If I did not offer to share my house, I think I would burn in Hell. There was only one problem with my offer: I have too much “stuff.” Presently, I do not have room to take in a single boarder. I knew what I had to do. Jesus’ reply to the rich man came to mind: “Sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. …How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! (Luke 18:22,24, NIV)” Surely, God was not talking to me. I am not a rich man. I just have a lot of stuff. If I lost it all in a flood, I would not be any poorer. If I sell everything I have and give to the poor, they will still be poor.
Since my epiphany, I have hauled six truckloads of stuff to the local auction house for a grand profit of $500. I plan to buy a couple of day beds for my guests. I still am not wealthy. But here is the lesson: I will not gain much financially by selling everything I have, but I will gain space. It is the space I can give to a family of four; and then they will have what they need. Also, everyone knows that when you die, you cannot take any of your stuff with you. By selling everything I have and by making room for my neighbor, I am loving my neighbor as myself. This is the Second Greatest Commandment and the basis of the Golden Rule. According to my Faith, living by this rule assures my place in Heaven. Jesus says I will have treasure in Heaven. I will have true wealth where no hurricane can destroy it.
posted by Cyber Church Cafe at 11:08 PM
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