Perspectives on the Katrina Disaster

Here are some interesting comments, blogs, etc. about Katrina and our responses to it. I’ve been doing some blog reading lately – I’m surprised, sometimes shocked, saddened, and sometimes angered…it’s just hard to know what’s up with the world these days. We are so quick to judge each other, and our hostilities are so near the surface…

I do not believe that Katrina is God’s punishment of a wicked city. There are NO cities, towns or hamlets free of wickedness.

I have wondered if, perhaps, the planet herself is not simply tired of us all and is beginning to shrug us off, the way we might flick an ant off a summer picnic table. I do believe that every one of us will be (already are) affected by what is going on. And I know that we have much to learn. Are you up to the challenge of turning tragedy and despair into lessons learned, and more love for your earthly family?

http://antwatching.blogspot.com/2005/09/lessons-from-katrina-maybe-you-and-i.html A great posting by Laura Young.

Joel's comments - I’ve posted some excellent comments by Joel at this blog.

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/index.html 2004 article - Prophecy?…you bet. Though it’s been coming (and people have known it) for much longer than 10 months.


A certain kind of detachment seems to be required. We must, certainly, do all that we can to help our own fellow citizens recover. If you can't give for the sake of poor, homeless Americans, then give for the sake of your own soul. Opening your heart is a good thing.

We must see ourselves in the victims' shoes and work hard to understand the fears and frustrations they must be feeling. We must come to understand that...'there but for grace...'. We must be willing to acknowledge in our hearts that we, too, would be stealing to feed a sick child or put shoes on our own bare feet. ...a TV...I can't say I wouldn't take it...could I trade it later? I'm in shock...maybe it's better to have something, anything, than to be standing waist deep in sea water and sewage in what used to be my front yard.
I don't think we have to be wearing rose-colored glasses to decide to make the best assumptions about the behaviors of people hit in this disaster. And ok, some of them may be "just criminals". So what? They are still human, still homeless, many dying, all of them scared and angry. So would I be. Wouldn't you be, too? Perhaps there is a 'bigger picture' here.

So detach a little from the politics, from the panic, from the (real) concern over rising prices. Count the blessings you can see, and GET IT that it was only a matter of geography that it isn't your family there. Send money if you can; send prayers or white light or light candles. Don't forget the poor in your own home town, because there are about to be more of you.

Look around you. What disaster could carry away all that you have, and all your dreams as well. In my town, the threat is forest fire; in the plains it's tornados; in the west earthquakes; near rivers flooding...we are, none of us, provided any guarantees. Our job is to keep peace in our hearts and to see our neighbors - our plantary neighbors - as sisters and brothers, all members in the human family and all equally subject to the same hopes and dreams, the same fears and nightmares.

This struck me as timely. It was sent to me recently by a good friend.

" To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns,
To surrender to too many demands,
To commit oneself to too many projects,
To want to help everyone and everything,
Is to succumb to the violence of our times."
---Thomas Merton