Posted on 09/14/2005 9:37:36 AM PDT by NYer
There was no town like New Orleans.
It was reviled as a center of sin, but praised as a center of Catholic piety. It was defined by both the innovations in its music and the old-world touches in its architecture.
In songs and in literature, it has always been used to evoke the best in America culture — it was a key ingredient for William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and Catholic novelist Walker Percy. Arlo Guthrie found America on “the train they call the City of New Orleans.”
And now it’s gone.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” said Mayor Ray Nagin, breaking down on live television as he saw images of the destruction hurricane Katrina left in its wake. “We’re looking at the worst natural disaster in American history.”
EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo described life there now: “There are snakes, alligators, open gas and oil lines, live electricity, bodies, and sewage in this nasty pool that is weaving its way through our homes.”
The drowning of New Orleans is a focal point that stands for Katrina’s massive damage strewn across four states.
It’s hard to imagine the devastation. We’ve all heard the stories. A 70-year-old woman stranded in Biloxi, Miss., ventured out to find aid but rushed back to her ruined home when she saw dead bodies. Evacuees at Red Cross shelters in Alabama, asked what they need, answered “temporary work.” Whole families are wandering from place to place with nothing. But it’s New Orleans that is entirely lost, and it’s leading people to ask: Why?
Some religious believers have suggested that the hurricane was God’s judgment on the city. Arroyo had a sharp answer to that.
“If it is, God’s aim is off,” he said. “He drowned all the good areas — East New Orleans, Lakeview, Metairie. The French Quarter is five feet above sea level. It will most likely survive.”
Others blamed the wrath of the gods of nature for the hurricane.
“Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil-fuel dependence,” wrote Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., blaming Republicans in particular. “Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.”
Those who blame our environmental wrongs for every natural disaster that visits us are twins with those who blame our sins: They are both convinced that the evils of man cry out for vengeance. The difference is that religious people rely on the Ten Commandments to identify our sins. Kennedy cited Nature magazine.
Others suggested that God isn’t involved at all.
A National Public Radio commentator reported that the severity of hurricane seasons comes from natural changes in temperature over the Atlantic, then added: “If this was the result of intelligent design, then the designer has something to answer for. … Are hurricanes part of some mysterious design?”
Job and his friends ask similar questions — and God’s answer is surprising. He catalogues the wonders of the world that Job can’t fathom, from the stars to the oceans. But Job isn’t won over until God describes a hippopotamus in excruciating detail. Only then does Job repent of having challenged God.
The message for us is clear: If we can’t even understand a hippo, why do we expect to understand the grandest mysteries of the universe? God ups the ante in the crucifix, identifying suffering as the place to meet his love.
That’s the conclusion Raymond Arroyo came to. He described the “small lesson” he learned from the destruction of his childhood neighborhoods, his home and all the photographs, books, music CDs and personal letters he has assembled in his lifetime.
“Ultimately, you’re in God’s hands,” he said. “The truth of the matter is, this is how we exist every day, but we live in the delusion that we’re in control. Moments like this reinforce the reality of our fragile lives and the reality of God’s awesome power.”
Arroyo is trying not to mourn his possessions but to cherish his family, who got out of New Orleans alive.
The Big Easy, the Cajun city of jazz, is gone. No one knows when or how it will be rebuilt. But it’s best to apply Arroyo’s lesson to New Orleans: God is a mystery, and life is his greatest gift. The streets, the elaborate graveyards and the clubs are a great loss — they are precious things that can never be replaced.
But the loss of so many lives is immeasurably worse.
Appropriately, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday said it best:
“Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans / And miss it each night and day? … I miss the moss-covered vines, the tall sugar pines / Where mocking birds used to sing. … But there’s one thing more — I miss the one I care for / More than I miss New Orleans.”
Will post Raymond Arroyo's story on a separate thread.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” said Mayor Ray Nagin, breaking down on live television as he saw images of the destruction hurricane Katrina left in its wake. “We’re looking at the worst natural disaster in American history.”
Ray Nagin makes Chicken Little look like Clint Eastwood.
Somehow I don't find it one of the "grandest mysteries of the universe" that living 12 feet below sea level, right next to an ocean is a bad idea.
If this is God's revenge on humanity, then it is an Old Testament God. The majority of people in the area hard hit by Hurricane Katrina are honest, law-abiding, God fearing people. I don't see any reason to make them suffer.
"Ultimately, you’re in God’s hands,” he said. “The truth of the matter is, this is how we exist every day, but we live in the delusion that we’re in control. Moments like this reinforce the reality of our fragile lives and the reality of God’s awesome power.”
Amen!
"Ultimately, you’re in God’s hands,” he said. “The truth of the matter is, this is how we exist every day, but we live in the delusion that we’re in control. Moments like this reinforce the reality of our fragile lives and the reality of God’s awesome power.”
Amen!
Sorry about the hiccup!
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“First is water then is fire of eto fore more will come. People have forgotten His Majesty is full of LOVE but a full of Justice. Sometimes you have to smack your kid for them to learn. Sometime you have to take a medicine you don’t like to have; of fore it will help you later.:}}}}}}}}}”
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"Everything will be well" thank you all
The God of the Old Testament is the same as the New Testament.
God is God, old testament or new testament. We were't promised there would be no chastisments...in fact, there are promises to the contrary...The book of Revelations heaps one after another up....God is God, and he can do what he wants to because it's his game. But whether the storm was a chastisement from Heaven, I leave in God's hands.
More important from our place and view is how do we respond when we see pain and suffering?
Zot! Steve Goodman wrote "City of New Orleans."
* True. Although one finds references to Lucifer, Beelzebub, Satan, Legion, etc one can't find "Democrat Party" of "Libertarian Party" in the Bible and so, clearly, chastisements would come..
I have no idea what you mean by that. If you are talking about wickedness in the world, there is no area exempt. It's not an American phenomenon...but its also true that those who live in America are not all good either...or all wicked.
God will do as God does. It's our job to behave and respond in the way he would have us do, and basically, leave the driving to him.
But we cannot say we have not been warned.
*It was a tongue-in-cheek comment indicating my relative displeasure with Democrats
"More important from our place and view is how do we respond when we see pain and suffering?"
I agree and think that the citizens of America are responding very well to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"Ray Nagin makes Chicken Little look like Clint Eastwood."
Ray Nagin makes Forrest Gump look like Einstein.
If he were white, he'd be pumping gas.
No, that is the part of the city that is likely to be back online by the end of this month. The Quarter is in pretty good shape, the area around the zoo is as well. Most of the central business district will be usable by the end of October. The port has started receiving and sending cargo, the NS rail line is open (with some restrictions).
The oldest book in the Old Testament is Job, the oldest book in the New Testament is James. Both deal with trials and tribulations. There is a message in that.
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