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September 03, 2005
The impact...
And this, from Rod Dreher:
I was thinking this morning talking to my family down in
Louisiana that there is a profound and perhaps unappreciated need for pastors and other Christian leaders in the state and region to shepherd
their flocks in a direct and engaged way in this time. Everybody's attention is focused on direct and immediate aid and relief, but what is simultaneously happening across the region is social disruption that
is simply unimaginable. My family lives about 100 miles north of New Orleans, in a beautiful rural/small town area -- and it is not only
overrun with refugees, it is overrun by New Orleanians with money, who are desperately trying to buy housing. I don't blame these New
Orleanians, but there is tremendous anxiety among the locals over all
this. My parents' neighbors sold their house yesterday for $100,000
more than they were asking for it; a moneyed New Orleanian paid it on
the spot so nobody else would get the house. That's going on
everywhere. It's starting to sink in with the locals that nothing for
them will ever be the same again. Understandably their desire to help
their storm-displaced neighbors in need is being compromised by their
fear of the future -- what is going to happen to our little town? --
and their fear that the looting and lawlessness they've all seen in New
Orleans this week might come to their town.
This story is playing itself out all over the region now. It is a time
like never before in our lifetimes for strong moral leadership from the
Church -- and not just in a standard "give money to help the poor" way.
The people who lost their houses in and around New Orleans are not by
any means the only displaced people in this catastrophe. The social and
moral challenges all people in the Gulf Coast region will face as an
entire city disperses throughout the region will be unprecedented --
and will require unprecedented vision, courage and grace to get through
decently. Now is truly the moment for the Church -- pastors and laity
alike.
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Tracked on Sep 3, 2005 8:20:34 PM
Comments
Rod,
My prayers have included you and your family. Right after warnings about Katrina started rumbling last weekend, I thought of your post-Ivan premonition last year of what a direct hit would do to New Orleans. I hoped to heaven you would be proved wrong.
Posted by: Rich Leonardi at Sep 3, 2005 1:40:38 PM
We live in Lafayette, La., about 2 hours west of NO. What Rod said is true. Houses are flying off the market here, companies are looking for office space to relocate. There are no rental properties to be found. Our roads that are not equipped for our regular population are absolutely a nightmare to drive on right now with the extra traffic. Rumors and truth of increase in violence is all the time. At one point, banks and businesses had locked their doors. Credit cards can't be used in many places because of the phone system being overwhelmed. Our cell phones are not receiving calls, but can get out and we are in an extended area in our own area. Yes, Rod, changes are coming and we are all worried and fearful. BUT we also see the most beautiful charitable acts being performed everywhere from people giving money to friends who are housing 10 or more people in their home, sending meals to neighbors, to volunteering, daily masses are more crowded than before, welcoming NO people and for the most part talking kindly about the problems and how grateful we are to have our homes intact to be able to share our resources! Please everyone remember that all the media seems to be showing is a lot of the negative in NO. And it is bad, BUT everyone is trying very hard there and all other places where 100's of thousands of people have been displaced to start their lives over.
Posted by: Jill at Sep 3, 2005 2:03:58 PM
Speaking of Church leadership, has Bishop Sam Jacobs from Houma-Thibodaux diocese been heard from yet??
Posted by: jenB at Sep 3, 2005 2:07:18 PM
Our prayers are with all of you.
As a heads up, there's a new public-service message board/support group for anyone affected by Katrina. www.katrinatalk.org Come over and give some support and get some, too.
Posted by: crn at Sep 3, 2005 4:02:02 PM
This is certainly something to ponder on
http://www.spiritdaily.org/New-world-order/neworleans.htm
Posted by: Terry at Sep 3, 2005 4:25:10 PM
Here's the kind of thing I'm thinking about tonight.
On a small road just off Highway 61, not far from where my parents live, sheriff's deputies this afternoon found an abandoned Orleans Parish school bus. The interior was covered with fire-extinguisher foam, though there didn't appear to be a fire.
The only thing that seems clear from this discovery is that someone, or some persons, stole that bus and got out of New Orleans, 110 miles to the south. They did not stop at the refugee centers in Baton Rouge, but kept on going. They did not continue one mile further to the town of St. Francisville, where refugees are congregating, but instead ditched the bus on a side road. And why the foam? Were they trying to cover up fingerprints?
Now, imagine that you are my mom and dad, or my sister, or any of the rural folks I grew up with, and you are about to settle in for the night. How easily will you sleep? Did the person or persons who stole that bus walk on into town and join the refugees? Is that person or persons hiding out in the woods? That person or persons almost certainly doesn't have any money, and almost certainly lost everything he owns (they own). They are undoubtedly desperate (who from New Orleans isn't?).
People that far out in the country don't have their houses securely locked. Having lived in big cities for half my life, I always get jittery when I go visit my parents, because they have fragile locks on their doors, and it never occurs to anybody to lock his car. Those people are all sitting ducks. And they know it.
Now, if you were one of them, and a man who looked like he hadn't bathed for a week knocked at your door this night, or tomorrow morning, would you open it? Could you afford to? Would this man be a poor sweet soul who had been pushed past the limit, and just needed food and a bath and a kind word -- or might he be the Misfit? He's knocking. What do you do?
What would Jesus do?
I don't know the answer. Then again, like most of you, I live far away, and I don't have to ask myself the question. Please pray for cool heads, warm hearts and an ocean of grace for the storm victims and those who are called to help them.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at Sep 3, 2005 9:56:19 PM
"Now, if you were one of them, and a man who looked like he hadn't bathed for a week knocked at your door this night, or tomorrow morning, would you open it? Could you afford to? Would this man be a poor sweet soul who had been pushed past the limit, and just needed food and a bath and a kind word -- or might he be the Misfit? He's knocking. What do you do?
What would Jesus do?"
Jesus would let him in. I would call 911 to have the authorities come. I would then talk to him a bit through the door to see if he appeared safe. If he did, I would ask him to back off a reasonable distance, and I would bring food and drink, lay the tray down, and retreat inside while he ate. We are commanded to be charitable, but I think we always have to take reasonable precautions for the safety of our family.
Posted by: Donald R. McClarey at Sep 3, 2005 10:51:16 PM
I'm with Don.
I'm wondering if a number of prisoners from New Orleans correctional facilities escaped during Katrina, and might account for the violence and the attacks on rescuers -- and partially explain why authorities confined refugees.
Posted by: Rick at Sep 3, 2005 11:13:18 PM
Donald McClarey: Your comments always exhibit so much common sense.
Posted by: Donna at Sep 3, 2005 11:22:07 PM
NYTimes today has a story about how volunteers from outlying areas got in their bass boats and motored toward New Orleans to try to help evacuate people. One of them was quoted as saying they got shot at by thugs who wanted to steal their boats.
Tonight, my uncle, a ferry boat captain, is piloting a car ferry toward New Orleans as part of the state government's evacuation effort. The boat had to stop at a town upriver from N.O. to pick up armed security. I am comforted to know that my uncle is himself heavily armed. And I am thinking about what the fact that an American city turned into Six Flags Over Lord Of the Flies in less than a week tells us about human nature, and the American character circa 2005.
I know what it tells us about government: that I cannot count on city, state or federal government to maintain order in a catastrophe. Bunch of utter incompetents from top to bottom. That's a hell of a thing to realize, but I suppose it's useful to get that learnt before my own city has a disaster. And it damn sure is going to affect my voting from here on out. As well as my attitude toward the NRA.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at Sep 3, 2005 11:34:30 PM
Rod Dreher writes:
"And I am thinking about what the fact that an American city turned into Six Flags Over Lord Of the Flies in less than a week tells us about human nature, and the American character circa 2005."
It seems rather obvious that human nature and the American character have an overwhelming instinct toward survival. 4-5 days of no food and water just might push a few of us over the edge.
Posted by: Richard at Sep 3, 2005 11:57:36 PM
Those people are all sitting ducks. And they know it.
Rod: I'm a city girl who automatically locks the car even if I'm running into the post office for 5 minutes. Like you, I get the willies when staying in rural cabins and homes where the only thing barring The Misfit from your door is a rusty metal hook.
But country people, unlike us city dwellers, usually own guns. And, of course, the national caricature of rural Southerners is that them good ole boys are armed to the teeth and are not shy about using their guns. It might be an unfair and cartoonish stereotype, but under these circumstances, that stereotype might actually do some good. If I were an escaped criminal and had the brains God gave a goat, I would not automatically assume that a farmhouse in Louisiana or Mississippi would be easy pickings.
I imagine a lot of folks are not only going to be buying better locks - they'll be keeping those guns handy. And that of course, leads to another worry - that an understandably frightened farmer will mistake a destitute innocent for a criminal and pull the trigger in haste.
Posted by: Donna at Sep 4, 2005 12:03:18 AM
Donna: And, of course, the national caricature of rural Southerners is that them good ole boys are armed to the teeth and are not shy about using their guns. It might be an unfair and cartoonish stereotype, but under these circumstances, that stereotype might actually do some good.
All my relatives are good ol' boys, God love 'em, and armed. Some of them are good ol' gals packing heat. My mom, f'rinstance. My mom got a call the other night from their police juror (the Louisiana equivalent of a county selectman or council member), advising that if she and my dad needed help in this anxious security situation, that they should call him. She told him, "Randy honey, if I call you for help, it's gonna be to help me tote the body of the dude I've shot out of here."
She laughed at herself; people are bucking themselves up with bravado. Still, it's not entirely a joke, as people really are armed. And it's not a race thing, really: one of my mom's friends, an African-American lady, told her that she too was carrying a pistol in her purse these days, fearful that "that mess from New Orleans" -- meaning the thugs, not the good people -- might come to town causing trouble.
Still, like you, Donna, my fear is that some overanxious farmer is going to shoot first and ask questions later. Seems to me that it's bound to happen. I hope not.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at Sep 4, 2005 6:44:44 AM
I live in a big city and this is the last straw. I'm going to get armed. Between the manifest incompetence of government at all levels and the poor hold on civilization that many of us have, I've had it.
Posted by: sj at Sep 4, 2005 11:24:53 AM
No Orleans Parish jail prisoners are known to have escaped. The thugs looting and shooting were just part of the numerous local criminal underclass, coming soon to a city near you. Has it occurred to anybody that the perps of the rapes and murders in the Superdome got off scot-free, evacuated with the innocents they tormented? Do you think they'll play any nicer in their new shelters? Or in long-term housing provided by the government or charities? The problems of NOLA have just been exported.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at Sep 4, 2005 2:57:51 PM
Sandra,
You may be right regarding escaped prisoners, but I did see an email on Free Republic describing how the Parish jail had flooded and some prisoners had broken from their cells.
I expect you are right, though, in that the unimprisoned criminal class would be enough to explain the assaults.
I truly hope law enforcement will pursue and prosecute the rapists and murderers in the Superdome. There must be witnesses? Letting those crimes go unpunished would be intolerable.
Posted by: Rick at Sep 4, 2005 3:18:28 PM
I don't think many people really understand how lawless certain areas of NO are. I am sure that the vast majority of the crimes were committed by people who were unincarcerated when the hurricane hit. These people are the products of a couple of generations holed up in the housing projects, which is a jungle unto itself. For years the NOPD would not venture into the housing projects out of fear. NO residents drove out of their way to avoid going near the housing projects, knowing them to be a war zones. I'll repeat--there has been no civilizing force within those ghettos for 40 years.
Posted by: CatherineL at Sep 4, 2005 3:53:52 PM
My wife has been very involved in the relief effort here in Baton Rouge, and has had a chance to talk with a lot of the first responders in between their runs to New Orleans. They tell her the norm is that the groups they are rescuing off the interstate overpasses etc have been polite and very grateful. Often, they had already worked out themselves the sickest / injured / elderly who needed to be transported first. Sometimes they have directed the responders to other groups of people worse off then themselves.
Certainly the looting and bad things happened , but there were also acts of heroism, self-sacrifice, compassion and goodness in New Orleans. I hate it that the media focus is on just the bad.
Posted by: dbr at Sep 4, 2005 7:40:45 PM
Dbr, I'm sure there have been lots of instances of heroism. That's surely in the human character too, not to mention the Christian character.
But the other is there too, as has been widely witnessed this week. It is a fact that rescues were put on hold for crime fighting in NO.
As for the news media, they're busy playing politics--that's very plain. Scratch the surface and it's 1968 again in their house......
Posted by: michigancatholic at Sep 5, 2005 2:12:06 AM
You may be right regarding escaped prisoners... I'm going to get armed...
BTW: general info, mountain sheep, domestic sheep, bighorn sheep, dall sheep, mouflon sheep, snow sheep, urial sheep, barbary sheep, sheep production, counting sheep, sheep wool, sheep shearing.
Posted by: kate at Apr 7, 2006 6:38:23 AM
