September 8, 2005 -Who's to Blame for Katrina?
Life is a series of changes and chances that defy logic. All of the beauties, horrors, opportunities and crises of life intersect in a divinely significant and yet deeply mysterious pattern that we call the present moment.
Tangled in Tentacles of Blame!
By: Ian Lawton
"There is no such thing as a 'natural' disaster. Hurricanes happen, but death comes from official neglect, from tax cuts for the rich that cut the heart out of public protection. The corpses in the street are victims of a class war in which only one side has a general." ~Greg Palast quotation from "Bush Strafes New Orleans Where is our Huey Long?"
A true story from the American Midwest in the 1850s points to the religious “blame game”. It was a time of awful drought. A group of pastors gathered and prayed earnestly for rain. By the next day the heavens had opened, and with the rain came an electrical storm. Lightning happened to strike and destroy the Mayor’s house. The Mayor immediately sued the preachers. In court the judge asked the Mayor, “Do you believe in prayer?” The Mayor answered a little too quickly, “No!”, before realizing his mistake. So he changed his answer to, “Yes”. The Judge then turned to the preachers and asked them, “Did you pray for lightning?” When they answered, “No”, the Judge’s gavel came crashing to his bench and he dismissed the case with the proclamation that lightning struck not as a result of prayer, but rather as an act of God.
The religious and popular response to last week's Hurricane and ensuing devastation of New Orleans has been just as confused as this story from the 1850s. It has been like watching an octopus flailing its tentacles around with fingers pointing in every direction. The blame game comes so naturally for us. It can easily lead to becoming tangled in our responses.
Al Qaeda hailed the hurricane as the wrath of God on America, the oppressor. Christian leaders such as Bill Shanks from New Orleans suggested that God sent the hurricane to purge the city of its rampant sin. “New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again."
Liberals pointed fingers at the deficient response of the Bush administration. Funds and resources that were diverted from hurricane protection and levee repairs in Louisiana and used instead for the war in Iraq were a target of criticism. James Leroy Wilson said, "You would think that President Bush and Congress would know that the levees of New Orleans were more crucial to America's welfare and security, than the leveling of Fallujah, that their responsibility is to govern the United States, not the world."
Republicans turned their fingers back at the Democrat leadership of New Orleans and Louisiana for not using local school buses to evacuate the area. Fox news claimed that the Mayor of New Orleans helped tourist to evacuate before helping poorer locals in the Superdome.
Even the extent of the responsibility of government was questioned through the tragedy. Some liberals saw Katrina as the playing out of cosmic karma for ecological, economic and social irresponsibility at the hands of government.
According to a liberal view, the poor deserve this type of tragedy least and usually suffer it most harshly. Liberals say that it’s no accident that poor black people are the ones left in the devastated city to fend for themselves. They suggest that there are no "natural" disasters. Death and homelessness occur as a result of poor government policy.
Libertarians on the other hand pointed to the economic devastation that hit the area over the past decades that led to a Louisianan skepticism about the extent of the intervention of the federal government. They prefer to look to the free market for privately funded rebuilding efforts rather than on “handouts” from a national government that got them in a mess in the first place.
Environmentalists made their case that the ferocity of hurricanes such as Katrina are a direct result of global warming, caused in large part by the reliance on fossil fuels. Their fingers pointed at the persistent refusal of the U.S. to join the nations of the world in implementing the Kyoto Accords emission limits, and to impose serious pollution restrictions on the cars being sold in the U.S. They suggested that over development in the area alongside the massive oil and gas investments destroyed the natural protections from storms that the coastal wetlands have previously provided.
That’s just a sampling of the finger pointing and analysis that has taken place in the past week. What a tangled web of blame!
The problem with blame is that it gets caught in a single explanation or causal link, and ends up being partial at best. Katrina arrived with a series of complex and interconnected dynamics. No doubt one policy did lead to another, and no doubt the poor are suffering considerably more than the wealthy.
Just for a moment, however, let’s leave the blame game behind and focus on our own varied responses to the tragedy. How has Katrina affected our consciousness, both personally and collectively?
Our emotional levees are bubbling up to bursting point. Compassion, anger, grief and so many more reactions are competing for our attention. We want answers and we want to do something to express these powerful emotions.
Sometimes we can’t even think about it. Sometimes we just need to do something to express compassion before the dams of hopelessness burst deep within us.
We have an opportunity to start afresh and work together. Whatever caused the hurricane, our karmic future can be improved with compassionate actions right now. The way that we respond, right now, will affect our collective future.
An old monk had a young novice who was about eight years old. One day the monk looked at the boy's face and saw there that he would die within the next few months. Saddened by this, he told the boy to take a long holiday and go and visit his parents. Three months later, to his astonishment, the monk saw the boy walking back up the mountain. When he arrived he looked intently at his face and saw that they boy would now live to a ripe old age.
“Tell me everything that happened while you were away,” said the monk. So the boy started to tell of his journey down from the mountain. He told how one day he came upon a stream in flood. He noticed, as he tried to pick his way across the flowing stream, that a colony of ants had become trapped on a small island formed by the flooding stream. Moved by compassion for these poor creatures, he took a branch of a tree and laid it across one flow of the stream until it touched the little island. As the ants made their way across, the boy held the branch steady, until he was sure all the ants had escaped to dry land. Then he went on his way. “So,” thought the old monk to himself, “that is why the gods have lengthened his days.”
Whatever your religious beliefs, no matter what your politics and however you analyze Katrina and its aftermath, practice compassion. It may not be the gods lengthening your days, but what goes around will come around.
Compassion builds interconnected benefits for all people across time.
Breathe deeply and with every breath join your life to the life of the universe. With every breath join your life to lives lost to rising waters.
With every breath join your life to the efforts of those who will rebuild their lives on dry land. Access a compassion that grows out of every undiscriminating breath. This breath connects the heart and soul of life itself. This breath connects the past and future. This breath shatters the dividing walls of human hostility and blame.
Let us draw from a well-spring of compassion that offers a path to a rebuilt future for all people. From this base, we can learn lessons about urban poverty and appropriate government intervention and so much more.
From this base, we will take the opportunity for working together. No hurricane or flood or government policy can dampen that depth of human spirit.
Connect with Suffering through exercise of Tonglen
Suffering is all around us. We feel it all the more evident in the events of hurricane Katrina, and with the anniversary of the attacks of 9/11.
Pema Chodron writes: “Tonglen has to do with cultivating fearlessness. It opens your heart and gives you courage. In tonglen, you breathe in pain; you acknowledge the suffering of the world. You explore the discomfort of the human condition. And then, with every out breath, you open. You connect with your feelings of joy, well-being, satisfaction and tenderheartedness."
"This practice brings the realization that you can feel both suffering and joy – that both are part of being human. Your heart will open, and you will become less concerned with personal protection. You will cultivate fearlessness and compassion. And that will be of great benefit to others.”
Click here to read more on the practice of Tonglen
How You Can help Katrina's Victims
As we have all been devasted and shocked by the tragedy caused by hurricane Katrina, many have been moved to offer support. If you would like to donate to the relief effort, you may wish to check out this listing by NBC news, to contact the organization of your choice.
If you would like to donate to the American Red Cross visit their website www.redcross.org or call 1-800-HELP-NOW
For more information about the work International Aid is doing, or to donate visit their website www.internationalaid.org or call 1-800-251-2502.
click here for Hurricane Relief news and support agencies
Check Out the Bulletin for Sunday and Our Bulletin Archive!
The C3 Bulletin Archive has turned into a great resource center for other progressive communities around the world. Thanks to the wonderful talent on our staff we are quickly becoming a leader in Progressive Christian liturgies. Check out our Bulletin Archive for more Progressive Christian Liturgies Today!
A Beautiful Progressive Hymn to be sung this Sunday...
We Would Be One
We would be one as now we join in singing our hymn of love, to pledge ourselves anew to that high cause of greater understanding of who we are, and what in us is true.
We would be one in living for each other to show to all a new community.
We would be one in building for tomorrow a nobler world than we have known today.
We would be one in searching for that meaning which binds our hearts and points us on our way.
As one, we pledge ourselves to greater service, with love and justice, strive to make us free.
(You will need Adobe Reader to view the bulletin a link to the free download is found on our bulletin archive page.)
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Don't Miss Homecoming Sunday September 11th
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Opening Words to Sunday's Homecoming Gathering...
"Imagine being fully alive, awake, and engaged. Imagine utilizing body, mind, and spirit in a rapturous three-part harmony that sets feet tapping, hearts beating, and souls soaring. Walking together from the self to the Self in community, this is a pilgrimage to the heart of the infinite."
You will not want to miss this year's Homecoming Celebration. This year's homecoming theme is "Home is Where the Big Heart Is." Come experience a beautiful variety of expressions: dance, music, meditation, and so much more.
We will be in community as we experience the joy of homecoming in our community, while exploring the pain and suffering in our world, remembering the anniversary of September 11th, and the recent devastation of hurricane Katrina. What an important time to come together.
Special Worship Center, and C3 Youth Open houses that your kids will not want to miss.
Once again we will have Gretchen's Kitchen available in the East Courtyard.
Don't miss this Sunday!
A Spirituality that Transforms: Translation vs. Transformation
After David's sermon last week, many have been interested in reading more on Translation and Transformation. This article by Ken Wilber has been featured in our ezine before and has been very popular and helpful in clarifying that distinction.
Enjoy!
Translation vs. Transformation
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