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LEAVING A CITY WITHOUT AN ARK
By Todd Buell
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
When I spoke to my mother on Wednesday about the then emerging story of
helplessness, hopelessness, and anarchy in New Orleans, the adjective that
came to her mouth was “biblical.” Indeed, one could easily envision that
something akin to the rapidly rising waters of the Mississippi river into
the New Orleans “bowl” was what Noah contended with when he built the ark
and escorted the animals out two-by-two.
Except, sadly, for many of the poor in New Orleans there was no ark. There
was only an “evacuation order” given a day before the storm, as it became
apparent that Hurricane Katrina would invade the Gulf Coast in apocalyptic
proportion. We know now, no effort was made to aid those too poor or too
disabled to drive out of the city. The Sunday Irish Independent
rightly points out that ours is a society that “runs on four wheels.” Woe to
you who lacks them!
In the Bible, Noah protects the animals, and in the Book of Revelation, God
protects his chosen ones as Armageddon approaches. As angry as I am at
elected officials, primarily in Washington, for failure to prepare and
protect Americans from a storm of this magnitude, I am not cynical enough to
claim that President Bush and his fundamentalist Christian buddies
consciously thought that only upper-class white people were worthy of being
saved from the storm.
However, all members of government are not absolved from this tough
question: How do we, all Americans, prevent something like this from ever
happening again?
One technique that seems appropriate in our deeply spiritual society is to
look to religion. By doing that, one can see how fundamentally unchristian
the response to Hurricane Katrina was at all levels of government. The
Bible, in a number of places, enjoins us to care for those who are weak,
sick, and unable to care for themselves.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaims “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Though he is speaking of life after
death, there should be no doubt that Jesus intended the spirit of those
words to ring true on earth. The Gospels are filled with stories of Jesus
helping or advocating for those whom no one else would touch—lepers,
prostitutes, and wasteful children—while also confronting hypocritical and
corrupt leaders.
Jesus, to paraphrase the words of writer Robert Woodruff, shows “reverence”
to those whom he encounters. He is the most careful, tender, and loving to
those who are the weakest, sickest, and most vulnerable.
Louisiana state officials should also reflect upon the Katrina calamity and
its toll on those most vulnerable. It is generally the responsibility of
municipal officials to provide adequate transport out of the city to all
residents who are unable to drive themselves out. That would have been the
reverential action.
Some residents of New Orleans arrived at the Greyhound bus station the day
before the storm hoping to catch a bus out, and the station had closed; all
the city could do was haul them into the Superdome. Why didn’t the city have
its own buses taking needy people out? To be admittedly clichéd, is that not
what Jesus would have done?
Moving back to Bush. Having grown increasingly dissatisfied with his
handling of the war in Iraq, the ever worsening condition of America's poor
and middle classes, and his pretense of being a Christian president
supported by pious Christian Americans, I am becoming ever more angered at
his invocations of Christianity. Jesus’ most fundamental teaching is to
“treat thy neighbor as you would be treated.”
The Golden Rule is the strongest and most enduring lesson of Christianity.
It is an unambiguous command to live as Jesus did and to look always for
those in need and to find ways of improving their lot, the antithesis of
what it seems that governments did during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Reverence and sympathy, thankfully, were not lost on all governments last
week. The Irish Independent reported that Ireland’s foreign minister
was available by phone around-the-clock to Irish families whose loved ones
had been caught in the apocalyptic maelstrom.
Ireland, of course, is a country that historically was poor and suppliant.
Its people, even in its current condition of wealth, have not forgotten the
vulnerability and helplessness that comes with being poor. Its diplomats
remembered the Golden Rule while our Christian president left a whole city
to face the flood without an ark.
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