[Vision2020] Iverson Column on Katrina

[Phil Nisbet]

Having read this piece of work I was strack by the fact that it omited the 
true parallel for what just happened in New Orleans and further suggested a 
false ideal on both the nature of G-d and the occurence of natural events.

Katrina was not the greatest disaster in American history;

http://www.1900storm.com/

Take a look at Galveston after that particular storm.  Now, was it an act of 
G-d trying to wipe the people of that town out for sins?  Was the action of 
Teddy Roosevelt at the time wrong?  And did they then rebuild and with 
changes manage to weather bigger storms?

Galveston rebuilt because they worked with nature, enhenced working systems 
and protected their barrier islands.  They did not survive subsequent storms 
because they prayed more or became more religious, they survived by planning 
correctly.

The poor victims in New Orleans greatest sin was being poor.  They were 
herded to low and cheap ground through a system of federal subsidies that 
benefited not themselves, but the people who lived high on the safe hills.  
Just as Job was not deserving of his fate, the hammer of Katrina fell on the 
least deserving of some sort of punishment.  There is no doubt in my mind 
that the same is true for Port Royal or for Galveston or for Johnston PA.  
Though we refer to these natural disasters as Acts of G-d, they are not his 
judgement on the people who become victims any more than Job was deserving 
of punishment.

Unlike Job's friends, who blamed the victim, we need to act with compassion 
and focus on assisting the people who have been marginalized.  They need our 
assistance, as Job need the help of his friends, who of course avoided him 
like a plague when he was hit by calamity.

And Galveston of 1900 provides us with an example of doing it right.  Then 
there was no FEMA, yet the people managed to rebuild a better city and 
better lives.  They did it with the outpouring of support from their fellow 
Americans and they did it with working with G-d's nature, not trying to 
force their will upon the power of the universe.  Let us not sit in 
judgement or play hand outs, but give those victims the ability to chose, 
allow them modern timber to rebuild their lives.

Phil Nisbet

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