Now Playing: Reflections on Hurricane Katrina
There have been a lot of things about the Hurricane crisis in New Orleans that have been overwhelming, heart breaking, and unbelievable. My reactions, emotions, and feelings have run the gamut, as I’m sure they have with everyone else. I have had some surprising insights that have come up that have shocked me, however, and in discussing some of the events with others I have had cause to look at the situation and players with new and more compassionate eyes.
One thing that has shocked me is that I am actually feeling compassion for George Bush (which is a very big deal for me given the fact that I am one of his most strident critics). Like all things, this outcome has been in development for a long time. The lack of effective response by the government is not simply a function of the war in Iraq, the Bush administration, or anyone in power right now, though these are all on-going contributing factors (as is the role each and every one of us has played in the past). We, as in this country, have had a long history of treating refugees and victims as the people in New Orleans are being treated right now. The only surprising thing should really be – why are we so shocked? Clinton was in office during the Albanian crisis, when hundreds of thousands of people were fleeing to Macedonia, being held in “no man’s land” between countries for weeks on end, finally shipped to some forgotten location (do you remember where? I don’t.) Going farther back, and running the political spectrum of leadership, is the situation in Israel with the refugee Palestinians, many of whom have been born, raised, and died in refugee camps. Regardless of how we feel about them politically, as human beings we have not taken care of our own. And, taking care of our own is not a modern day concept only to be employed by the so called developed and enlightened. Neanderthal and Cro-Magnum and other hominids took care of their own sick, dying, elderly, and handicapped populations before we even “civilized” ourselves. This is not a new concept.
Compassion arises in me for Bush who is at the crossroads of two very strong forces – being at the wrong place at the wrong time – when the inevitable becomes manifest – and he and the system that has been creating situation such as these since before the Civil War finds itself utterly incapable of taking any kind of responsibility or effective response. To watch a man, a system, and yes, a people, confronted with the reality of their self-imposed limits is overwhelmingly sad. To be put to the test and to realize that we do not have what it takes, and to know that we could be so much more, is even sadder.
Another shocking idea that has come out of all of this is my own judgment of the people who have been at ground zero for this past week. My first question was the distancing refrain – Why did they live there in the first place? My second question then fell along the lines of blaming– Why didn’t they leave? In both cases, the answer lies partly in the fact that they did not have the economic power to leave, and/or they misjudged the situation. Neither are reasons to condemn a mass of people. The third question that came up was in response to those at the Convention Center – Why didn’t they simply walk out if no one was coming with help?! This one troubled me greatly. I would look at the screen and see people angrily crying for help, other people trapped by materialism, and a people demanding what they felt was owed them. Why didn’t they just leave? No one made Katrina come. Yes, systems broke down, but these systems were being run by human beings. The anger you express now has a history all of its own, encompasses more than you think, and is not as easily resolved as being “saved,” as the continuing anger of the refugees clearly demonstrates.
While discussing this with a friend of mine who is also a New Thought minister, she challenged my thinking. She reminded me that while this thought might be obvious to me (which it wasn’t, in fact it didn’t occur to me until day four) that many involved in this crisis didn’t know that they could leave, that such an idea of self-empowerment was not in their vocabulary. And, and, when they did start to walk out, barricades were put up so they couldn’t leave. This, of all the things that have happened in the last week, has saddened me most of all. They didn’t know they could leave, and by the time they realized they could, it was too late. How many of us, in so many areas of our lives, feel trapped and angry and hopeless and experience lack and pain and suffering, and feel that there is no way out – from debt to mortgages to loneliness to dead end jobs to boredom to addiction to feelings of dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depression? How relieved do we feel (or dismayed if we don’t want to take responsibility) when we find out that our salvation lies in our own selves, in our own minds, in our own will to effect positive change in our lives.
For many of us, being told the answer truly lies inside ourselves is so out of sync with what we have been taught to seem like an idea from another world, a stroke of genius, or too good to be true. We didn’t know that we could walk away until someone shares this truth with us. Some of us were told this while growing up, some of us weren’t. Some of us may go our whole lives thinking that the answer lies somewhere in the ever distant horizon. Some of us aren’t even aware of a question or seeking an answer has our suffering become so institutionalized, so bred into our very genes. They didn’t know they could walk away. The greatest help we could have given them the first two days was to broadcast to them to get the hell out of there and go north, that anything was better than standing around and waiting for people to save you.
We can give them shelter, we can give them clothing, we can give them medical care, and we can flat out just give them money, but that is not going to solve their problems. That will take make them well dressed refugees rather than just poor refugees. What they need, from the president on down to the man on the roof who won’t let go of his chimney, are open hearts, and people willing to embrace every one of the players. What they need is a break, and to be heard. What they need is the permission and space to be human - not Teflon leaders, not lightning rods, not “the poor,” not judged, not condemned, not left to rot in the abandoned wilderness of the American soul.
In every single situation there exists the opportunity for positive or negative outcome. How can we help them through this– and not just their bodies – but their minds, their psyches, their spiritual selves? What can we learn from this situation – here in our living rooms in paradise? Don’t tell me that you can’t legislate that or plan for it or address issues such as these. I’ve read the Constitution, and it’s all in there.
Are we to be a country that is run into the ground by its own fighting and disconnect, or are we to be a country that comes together as a family? What we are willing to do is going to become apparent in the next few months and years, reflected in the eyes of Katrina’s children.
