Carl on Katrina

Dear Friends,

As the dimensions of the Katrina disaster slowly become apparent, this is all I have to say.

Eleven years ago, my brother and I found ourselves on the Sunset Limited train, Amtrak's Los Angeles to Orlando service. It was a long ride and we talked to people from all over. One person was a young woman from Pass Christian, Mississippi. The name of her hometown was intriguing enough and she told us about the ups and downs of small-town life along the Gulf Coast. She got off at either Bay St. Louis or Gulfport (Pass Christian lays right between the two) and as it was the middle of the night, we couldn't really see much. Earlier that day, we were able to see the natural wonders of the Bayou as the train snaked through southern Louisiana. All we saw of New Orleans itself was the train station. These are places I have since longed to return to, to really visit them. Today, some of them, Pass Christian in particular, are devastated or simply gone.

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For local perspective on how real people in that area are coping with the situation, I urge you to look at this local paper.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12537525.htm

While these folks are dealing with reality, others wade deeper into Wonderland. For examples of opportunism and sick minds in a time of crisis, I ask you to look at the editorial below. While these are religiously inspired, we all know that there are secular versions of this kind of NONSENSE. I am sure you have come across instances of this. Allow me to express deep shame caused by the ones coming out of Europe. Instead of engaging - thereby surely wasting energy put to better use elsewhere - in the blame game of your choice, why not volunteer or make a donation to the Red Cross (see links below)? The time will come for assessment, analysis and even justified recrimination. That time is NOT now. At least not for the people in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. And if they are trying to survive, who are we to do anything other than try to help?

always, Carl

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: September 2, 2005.
Nonsense in a time of crisis

"From some, crisis elicits bravery, generosity and endurance.
From others, alas, it elicits nonsense. In Katrina's heart-rending aftermath, here are three examples of foul hot air blowing at hurricane force:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who you'd think would have a little more sense of how to behave in the face of tragedy, wrote an essay suggesting, half-seriously, that the hurricane's landfall in Mississippi was God's punishment to the state's governor, Haley Barbour. It seems Barbour, former national chair of the Republican Party, did a turn as an oil lobbyist during President Bush's first term and wrote some memos opposing sound global warming policy. Some climatologists see a link between global warming and increased hurricane activity, but it's not proven. The main point is this: For God's sake, RFK Jr., Barbour right now is struggling to help his bleeding state. Now is the time to send the poor man aid and support, not op-eds looking to kneecap him on a policy point. You knew this next one was coming, and you can hardly be surprised who provided the inevitable idiocy: Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, speaking in Philadelphia on Wednesday, described the winds, floods and devastation along the Gulf Coast as God's first punishment for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. However you feel about the invasion, how can you watch on CNN the deprivation, shock and anguish of the poor people of New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi and say with satisfaction, "Yep, just deserts." Heartless, horrible and beneath contempt. Not to be outdone by Farrakhan, Michael Marcavage, locally based leader of a group called Repent America, also cast Katrina as an act of divine vengeance, not on Donald Rumsfeld, but on the sinful Big Easy itself. You see, Katrina's arrival came on the eve of a large gay festival in New Orleans. Words fail to express how obnoxious Marcavage's suggestion is. The problem of theodicy, how to explain why God lets bad things happen to good people, is as old as human awareness. But the noisome way these three comments resolve the conundrum is not only insensitive; it is, to use an old-fashioned word, blasphemy."

Donations:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/31/AR2005083101758.html

http://www.n-tv.de/574442.html

www.redcross.org

Carl Bergquist
temporary address:
Koertestrasse 30, QU
10967 Berlin
Germany
+49 179 810 7201 (cell phone)