Sitting at the right hand

Someone I know has a rich land-owner friend on the Gulf of Mexico. He sent her an email with a copy/pasted news opinion piece blaming Katrina on the “welfare state.” I have to say, I have rarely read anything so very offensive.

Some people seem to think that the biggest catastrophe along the coast was the loss of property. What particularly scandalizes them is the possible loss of property to “looters” (as often as not people taking diapers, food, and clothing needed to survive in the dessicating saltwater environment of the flooded New Orleans basin.)

Let's be clear on one thing – Katrina's great tragedy is the tremendous loss of life. Property can and will be replaced, not just by governments but by the tremendous generosity of the many benefactors who have stepped forward. The lives lost cannot be replaced. Many of the people who died were people who did not foolishly choose to “stay behind.” These were people in many cases completely unable to leave – not by car (due to not owning one), nor by foot (New Orleans just wasn't designed for pedestrian exit.)

The city's emergency plan called for the destitute to be bussed to the convention center and the Superdome, and that's just what happened. But that doesn't do a lot of good during a city wide flood. The one thing governments at municipal, state/provincial, and federal levels are supposed to provide, even as per Libertarians, is the protection and security of the citizens and the providing of civil order. So how is it we blame the victims for the failure to provide these things? We can forgive the governments for not anticipating well enough how to handle these kinds of emergencies – but that does not need to mean transferring the blame to the victims.

The people who died had inalienable human dignity. No heartless and bitter ideologue can strip that away with miserly fantasies about shiftlessness, laziness, or racial superiority. Human dignity is not earned, and it is not proper solely to the moneyed classes. It is the property of everyone, for God grants it to everyone.

My pastor says we need to see Christ in everyone. And Christ himself said something much like this.

Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'

Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'

And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' (Matthew 25:34-40)