Amidst all the agonizingly negative reports blaming everyone from Bush to mayors and governors for the blow that "Mother Nature" sent us last week, comes one blogger's opinions that are refreshing. Marc Gellman's post is about triage and how rescue workers have the daunting task of deciding whom to save w/ limited resources. But he makes some very good points to consider about why we Americans feel the need to blame someone. Here is an excerpt, but you can find the whole article here.
"Now there is much to say about why lifesaving resources are limited in this catastrophe, but only a fool or an abject ideologue cannot grasp the fact that when the strongest possible storm hit the most vulnerable possible city, death, devastation and chaos were sure to follow in its wake no matter what the preparations for the storm. Yes, more could have been done, and nothing I say or believe ought to be construed in any way as justifying any possible malfeasance of what public officials could have or should have done ahead of this killer storm. I am particularly bewildered and outraged at the length of time it has taken to get food and water to the starving, suffering people in the convention center. As I write this on Friday, they are still in harm’s way and still suffering from the lack of the only lifesaving resource that should never be rationed and that is hope. It is a disgrace that even in the context of necessary triage decisions, they still wait in fear, hunger and thirst way too long for the time of triage to end.
However, in the end I simply refuse to blame the rescuers more than the storm that caused the need for rescue. It is not merely naive but profoundly foolish to have expected that 100,000 troops with water and food and patrol vehicles and helicopters and busses and trains and showers and shelters and electricity and bulldozers and levee-repair crews and mobile kitchens and tent cities and psychological services and identity checkers and employment services and construction crews and electrical linemen and mechanical and structural and civil engineers and architects and water-control experts and animal-removal experts could have all been set up somewhere out of the storm path but close enough to swoop in and pluck the soaking victims out of harm’s way despite the collapsed bridges and levees the minute the winds stopped blowing and minute the tide subsided without missing a heartbeat. Where have we gleaned the arrogant belief that if we suffer from a natural disaster, it must always somebody’s fault?"
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Last week as reports of blame came out so profoundly in the news, hubby and I discussed our need to blame someone. When other tragedies have struck, for instance when thousands died on 9/11, we had someone to blame--terrorists. We had whole countries and societies to direct our rage toward, and it felt good. We knew who the enemy was. But this is a natural disaster, caused by God himself if you get right down to it. Who is there to blame? All our preparations in the world may not have saved us from this disaster, yet the media have this desire to spur such thoughts that if only Bush had done more, these poor souls would not have died. Do we really think we can outdo a natural disaster? Do we really think that w/ proper planning and enough resources we can outdo God, the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe? As Gellman asked, are we so arrogant that we think our great country should be exempt from these horrors? Are we so advanced a society that we should not be affected by a category 5 hurricane? Are tragedies of this magnitude only limited to 3rd world countries?
I won't try to read the mind of God or why he allowed this storm to so devastate a great portion of our gulf coast. But I do know that God will humble the proud. He will strike down the haughty and those who don't think they need him. Not b/c he is cruel and unloving and not b/c he enjoys wiping out entire communities. But to bring us back to him, to remind us that we need him.
Sure, the reality is that plans broke down in New Orleans, much like the levees that broke. Things went wrong. Supplies didn't reach their destinations, people were given bad information, and the infrastructure was not in place to evacuate people w/ limited resources of their own. But pointing fingers does not heal wounds, nor does it solve any problems in the long run. Yet human nature seeks someone to blame. At the very heart of our depraved beings, we need to be angry w/ someone outside ourselves when things go wrong. This is what we see on every TV channel, on every radio broadcast, on every news website.....blame. And blame is not going to heal us. We need hope, we need prayer, we need ordinary citizens to reach out w/ their hands or their pocketbooks, we need to pull together, not apart.
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