The NCAA has denied the appeal of the University of North Dakota to use its "Fighting Sioux" logo in post-season games. The appeal was rejected, said the NCAA Review Committee, because three federally recognized Sioux tribes of North Dakota disapproved of its use.
Spotted Tail, chief of the Brule Sioux (b.1823, d.1881).
What would he have thought about the issue?
This is curious. The tribes cited are the Standing Rock Sioux, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux, and the Spirit Lake Sioux. Fact is, most of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation is in South Dakota. Only a small fraction is in North Dakota. And all but a sliver of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservation is in South Dakota. The Spirit Lake Reservation is in North Dakota, but the people are Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux.
And what about the other nine Sioux reservations? What about the Flandreau Santee, the Oglala, the Crow Creek, the Rosebud, Lower Brule, Yankton, the Cheyenne River, and the other Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux and Standing Rock Sioux of South Dakota? Do these Sioux people not count, because they are not in North Dakota? They are a different race, a different people, because of where they live? Are we talking tribe or reservation? Ethnicity or locale?
Which Sioux people did the NCAA comitte consult? Was it tribal elders, or extra-tribal, Leftist "Indian" organizations--with some Indian office workers? The NCAA must be required to reveal every detail of their discussions, naming specific individuals involved. The whole prohibition is based on the 2001 statement published by the United States Commission on Civil Rights, which not a governing body, and has no authority. There was one enrolled tribal member on the USCCR at the time, Elsie Meeks, who is not a tribal leader, and not at all representative of Indians.
What does Russell Means really think?
But the NCAA recently announced that its prohibition on using Indian names and logos will extend to the College Bowl Games as well. The iron is hot, and the NCAA is on a blistering rampage. It's the 'ascent of the committee,' Communist style. Ironically, this political style is something Oglala Sioux Russell Means despises, notwithstanding his own professed disdain for Indian images in sports. He proposed a new constitution for the Oglala in January, Lakota Journal, in which he said "the tribal council on every reservation is Communist because they are run by committees." He proposes to do away with such.
I agree. Do away with the NCAA and the USCCR, both.
Less than two weeks after Israel heartlessly deported it's own citizens from Gaza, to acknowledge the "Palestinian" rights of autonomy, the "Palestinians" have attacked Israel--from Gaza.
Details are sketchy, since the news is only covering Israel's response. Apparently dozens of rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, Friday, and Israeli Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon has given Israel's military an open door to do whatever is necessary to stop any more rocket attacks.
Israeli soldiers prepare to fire a test round from an artillery piece near
Kibbutz Nahal Oz, in front of the northern Gaza Strip, September 25,
2005. Israel launched a new strike on the Gaza Strip and arrested more
than 200 suspected militants in a massive sweep in the West Bank after
warning Palestinians of a crushing response to rocket attacks from Gaza.
REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen
The Hamas attack proved that Israel cannot provide itself security by negotiation, trust, disengagement, or even complete withdrawal.
Could anyone possibly be surprised or disappointed in this outcome? The violent "Palestinian" groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad are explicit and inflexible in their intents: Israel must be distroyed, and driven into the sea. Peace is not the "Palestinians'" intent nor will they tolerate it. "Palestinian president" Mahmoud Abbas wants a "Palestinian" state in 2006. Right after the Gaza pull-out early this month, he spoke of taking Jerusalem next.
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has already noted (July 25) the ominous possibility that Hamas will take over Abbas and the Fatah regime.
Rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza for a long time. And the West Bank has had Qassam-2 rockets (a nasty home-made missile) since 2002. This is what comes out of any "Palestinian" concentration: violence.
This latest story has all the regular press confusion and misrepresentation, inevitable when the "Palestinians" lie about the facts. Hamas was having a military parade in Gaza, and a truck load of rockets exploded. Hamas said it was an Israeli air strike, but the "Palestinian" Authority said it was negligence on the part of Hamas.
But it doesn't matter. Israel must do what it has to do, to protect itself. There has never been, nor will ever be, any solution to the "Palestinian" hatred of Israel. No amount of land or advantage given to the "Palestinians" will satisfy them, nor quell their aggressive, murderous animosity toward Israel.
Their violence is their only validation of their identity. They only mimick Israel. Historically, there is no "Palestine" nation, and there are no "Palestinian" people. There is no "Palestine." There are no "Palestinians." It is not an ethnicity, nor a religion, nor a language, nor a culture. It is a left-over Syrian, Jordanian group, unwanted by other Arabic people, used by all Islamic Arabs to prick Israel. This is the pathetic identity of "Palestinians."
According to Rosemary Sayigh, in the Journal of Palestine Studies (1977), "a strongly defined Palestinian did not emerge until 1968, two decades after explusion." The myth of Musa Alami had taken twenty years to develop. He said in 1949 (The Middle East Journal) "How can people struggle for their nation, when most of them do not know the meaning of the word?" "The people are in great need of a 'myth' to fill their consciousness and imagination." Of course, the "self-respect" to ensue would be created by bloodshed. Surely, if one spills blood, the cause has to be true.
Like the GEICO insurance ads say, "We all do stupid things." Indeed, giving land and autonomy to imaginary "Palestinians" doesn't have to be one of them.
Katrina taught everyone that evacuation could save lives. But Rita is already teaching everyone that evacuation is a nightmare. We learned from Katrina that evacuation is important. We are learning from Rita that we don't know how to evacuate.
New Orleans, twice hit? Storm clouds loom over Canal street while wind blows askew
palm trees as the city prepares for the approaching storm caused by Hurricane Rita
early Friday, Sept. 23, 2005, in New Orleans. The storm took a sharper-than-
expected turn to the right on Thursday, setting it on a course that could spare
Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit. But that raised the risk that the hur-
ricane could strike much closer to New Orleans. AP Photo/Tracy Gitnick
We do know that FEMA is remarkably wasteful and fraudulent, to the point that Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper is suing the federal government for the release of FEMA records. We know the federal government is simply and utterly incapable of handling these national emergencies--for which FEMA was professedly designed. FEMA has turned out to be a haphazard give-away of millions of dollars.
That leaves the Army, an agency operating on mass logistics. These national emergencies like Katrina and Rita, and earthquakes and power outages, will all no doubt see more and more military involvement, both as organizational and law enforcement elements.
But there's also the church. What about these tax-exempt "faith-based" organizations to which federal money is allocated for social services?
As we see millions of people stuck on highways, driving north from the Rita's path, I wonder how many churches have opened their doors to the nature's refugees? It seems to me that the government, once the path of the storm is reasonably sure, and once the line of safety is drawn, should command all "faith-based" agencies to provide whatever facilities they have. Oklahoma City's Trinity Baptist Church already has taken in 35 hurricane homeless. What about all the churches in Texas?!
Every church with a gymnasium should be open. People fleeing the storm often do not have relatives or friends within the state or region. They literally have no place to go. Once the government commands evacuation, the government should also command facilities for accomodation. This would be army bases, church gymnasiums, even school gymns. Facilities nearest the needy people should be available by law. And don't forget tent cities, mass camping. This is still the quickest and most efficient way to accommodate masses of people.
It's all about mass logistics. Who can manage it? There has to be a plan, before the storm hits. The Florida storms generated no such planning. Nor did Katrina. Nor did New York's 9-11 attack, either. Americans are not used to such requirements. It seems socialistic, contrary to all our values.
In our quasi-idolatrous individualism here in America, it is difficult to understand that, in the last analysis, we are not in control. We really don't own what we think we do. There are forces that are more powerful than we are. We can no longer set up shop and assume we'll be there forever. Tradegy and disaster are on the increase. The effect is simply disruption of our materialism, and all things associated. We're being uprooted psychologically as well as physically.
Not to imply that God is some Cambodian Communist, but it is important to understand that we ourselves are not in fact God. We don't have complete control. But let the Muslims dance in the streets. Let them laugh and rejoice at the misfortunes of their "enemies." This is demonic, and they'll get theirs. They think the storms are the wrath of God? They have no idea. The Tsunami should have taught them a lesson, but they're irremeable. They think the storm fell on Muslims because of the Western influences in the Asian region. They don't consider that catastrophies in America might be because of our tolerance of Muslims here.
But Christian countries ought to be more open minded about interpreting events. Human history is not just the effect of man, but of Nature. Christians do believe that God intevenes, and that He does ultimately control the outcome. Christians also believe that there is an adversary in the world, namely, Satan.
So, there are a number of competing forces in our present reality. For anyone to claim validation based on someone else's tragedy is a bit presumptuous. To rejoice in someone else's calamity is satanic. (Prov. 17:5) Reality isn't so fine-tuned. There are too many variables, even human stupidity and negligence.
Yet, if there is to be a cataclysmic end of the world, it will definitely require a certain detachment from reality as we know it. Confusion will have to be trumped by principle. If anything, there are psychological, moral dimensions to be revived by these storms. We are a habit-proned race, humanity, and we're hard pressed to be otherwise. But the storms press us. Hard.
The greatest storm of all will be the wrath of the Lamb. According to Revelation 6:16, one day men will actually invite disaster, to avoid facing the Son of God. Now that's wrath. The wrath of conscience.
Surely, at the very least, these storms should awaken deep soul-searching in all of us. Of course we can learn logistical lessons, we can improve our responses; the social agencies can operate more efficiently, etc. But, can we be better human beings? Can we capitalize, spiritually, on these storms?
Cindy Sheehan began the Washington segment of her anti-war movement this Wednesday (September 21, 2005). The Left groups are spending staggering amounts of money for publicity, of course, for exposure in addition to the normal course that mainstream media gives Sheehan. This prolonged parade perpetuates acute disgrace of her son, of patriotism, and even of motherhood itself, but it's propped up by deep dollars, unlike any spent on conservative, patriotic Republican 'grass roots' movements. There are no bounds of decency or self-respect in Leftism, for the living or the dead.
Yet Sheehan is criticizing many leading Democrats for their apparent support of the war, for their support of sending more troops to Iraq (like Sen. Hillary Clinton has), or for just not saying anything. Sheehan 'called out' Hillary Clinton for not pushing for the war's end and for the return of the troops. (Of course, Rush Limbaugh warned Monday Sept. 19th, that another move like that will put Sheehan in obscurity for ever. She will mysteriously 'disappear.') Sheehan announced that Hillary's afraid to come out and say it, to say the war is wrong, and then Sheehan proclaimed to Hillary, before a Brooklyn crowd Sunday, "You say it, or you will lose your job!" This could lead to critical developments, indeed. How will Hillary make use of this situation?
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan leads a group of protesters
to the White House on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005 in Washing-
ton. Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq last year, is calling
for the immediate return of troops from the region.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Yet, the most critical aspect of the Sheehan story has already developed: a mother is using the death of her son, a soldier killed in battle, to validate her personal political opinions--which are the antithesis of her son's. This is has to be the most tragic, pitiful, and obscene gesture in recent American social history. It's supposed to be about grieving, but it's psychologically immature grieving. It's about anger. The essential dimensions of sorrow and sadness have been by-passed. This is not healthy at all, and a very poor example for anyone to follow. Where are the therapists? The counsellors?
But American life is all about politics now. Every aspect of life, living, death, race, gender, and emotion, are all assessed in socio-economic terms. This makes everything politically important. It is a quantitative life we live here in American society these days. The death of a son, a reactionary mother; it seems even these cannot rise above political identity. It's going to mean votes, eventually. There is no dimension in the society which is outside political expression.
Motherhood itself become wholly contaminated now. The Leftist malignancy of unlimited selfishness and self-idolizing has apparently left no child--or parent--behind. Indeed, new "victims" are being discovered with each turn of the earth's axis.
I dare say, real mothers don't dishonor their sons, particularly their brave, self-sacrificing sons. Cindy Sheehan should be proud that she raised such fine man. A rational mother would be. But, given her state of displaced grieving, one might wonder how Casey Sheehan, her son, came to believe the way he did. There's nothing in the behavior of his mother that would encourage such faithfulness as he displayed for God and country.
It is a criminal thing Cindy Sheehan does. It is a crime against her own son. They that support her are accessories.
In a way, Hillary doesn't have to do or say anything. Cindy Sheehans irrationality will automatically drive Hillary toward the center. That's what Hillary needs. And to think, without a word, she's there. Now of Chelsie will just join the Guard...
And one more thing: Cindy Sheehan makes even Jane Fonda seem more sincere. Fonda had no son killed in Vietnam. Fonda was a kid herself at the time. She may be equally as irrational as Cindy, but at least Jane was swept up in pure ideology, perverted as it was. Cindy discounts herself and whatever ideology she may hold by associating her protest with her grieving. Laurie Swanson said it all: Cindy feels guilty. It's not grief that drives her, but guilt. Her son was a better man, so to speak.
Does the star-spangled banner yet wave, after Hurricane Katrina? One might wonder, judging from a recent court decision. The flag may wave, but school children may not be allowed to pledge allegiance to it, at least if the pledge says "under God."
September 14, 2005, California federal judge Lawrence Carlton, of the infamous 9th Circuit, declared that it is unconstitutional to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag in public schools. One nation "under God" since 1954, is now considered not to be under God. Just the kind of encouragement needed when hundreds of thousands of Americans were left homeless after the worst natural disaster in the country's history.
What champion of truth brought about such a marvelous testimonial, such a triumphant celebration of the Constitution? An atheist Jew, from the Bronx. Michael Newdow graduated from Brown 1974, and UCLA Medical School in 1978. He later earned a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1988. Always doing his own thing, always averse to the established way, according to his mother. Okay. Lots of us can understand that. But, does he have to be deceitful about it? Intellectually dishonest?
His focus on the Pledge came when he decided to use his daughter as a ploy. Since he did not have custody of her, his case, which had made it all the way to the Supreme Court, was promptly dismissed.
Newdow, an attorney and a medical doctor, has now filed an identical case on behalf of three unnamed parents and their children. Note that "unnamed" element. It implies a lot. It implies that these parents are weak, cowardly, and uncertain of what they're doing, and willfully allowing their children to be "used." Their identities will inevitably be revealed. Any court filing is public knowledge. They cannot shield themselves or their children from the mischief of their doings. And the pitiful part is, the children had to be taught to say they were offended by the Pledge. This is child abuse, really. This is robbing the children of their community experience in school, making them targets of disdain, encouraging alienation and selfishness. Someone should file a suit against Michael and these parents for child abuse.
And I know Jews quite differently.
When I had just graduated from Yale Divinity, and was substitute teaching at Hamden High School in southern Connecticut, I remember an incident one Monday morning. (The school had been forced to limit the Pledge to once a week.) The home room class I had was that of Mr. Beauvoix, who, as it turned out was an avid socialistic type, most concerned that students not be required to do anything, at least nothing American--like saying the Pledge.
Hamden High School, Hamden CT, where three young Jewish
students stood to say the Pledge of Allegiance, "under God."
The intercom came on that Monday morning, and the Pledge began. It was so noisy in the class that I could not hear it. "Hey! Quiet down!" I yelled over the class. "This is the Pledge of Allegiance. What are yas? A bunch of Communists?" A radical thing to say, certainly. But I was radically surprised that their utter disdain and negative behavior at the sound of the Pledge. It was obvious disrespect. This disrespect, of course, is the real effect of telling kids they don't have to pledge. This is basic psychology.
I remember that as I stood for the pledge, only three other students stood. Three Jewish kids. Just three. Two girls and a guy. I remember the name of one of them, a lovely young girl named Susan Schlossberg.
Beauvoix, no doubt of French-Canadian descent, anxious to act French, and to keep up with the passe pseudo-intellectualism of the French Revolution, and to distinguish himself from the professional oblivion of high school teaching, had me stricken off the list of Hamden substitutes. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out what had happened. I went to the principle, who was an Italian American, and we discussed what happened. He immediately put me back on the list, of course, being the natural patriot most Italian Americans are. I wrote a formal statement about what happened.
It was then that I found out from Susan that she had gone into the principal's office and spoken in my behalf. "I saved you!" she later told me. I'll never forget that.
Most Jews are patriots, and deeply love America. It is terribly unfortunate, and dangerous to the Jewish community, that any one of them should take a course like Michael Newdow has done. This kind of manipulation of the law will bring down hell upon the Jewish community, eventually.
Now, the Pledge has a bit of a curious history, but, sometimes things take on a meaning of their own. Public acknowledgement of the God our fathers believed in and wrote extensively about, is a very American thing to do. For one man to be allowed to commit some kind of social autolysis out of his own frustrations, through the courts, is mockery of everything American. Indeed, the Courts of America are Public Enemy No.1. They have been for the last 50 years.
Newdow's ideology is so completely self-contradictory that only enemies of America, crippled intellects all, would support him.
He says, "Imagine every morning if the teachers had the children stand up, place their hands over their hearts, and say, 'We are one nation that denies God exists.' I think that everybody would not be sitting here saying, 'Oh, what harm is that.' They'd be furious. And that's exactly what goes on against atheists. And it shouldn't."
Newdow thus advocates atheism as a religion, moreover, a competitive religion.
Congress has made no law that the Pledge must be said. Newdow advocates that Congress must make a law that says it must not be said. "Under God" must not be said. So, if his case succeeds, Congress will utterly deny the Second Amendment. It will enact a law that forbids the free exercise of religion--for those who believe in God. It will give preference to a religion that does not believe in God. There is no escape of this conclusion. Will the Supreme Court see it? Remember, the Pledge is not commanded by law.
Just a note on the irony of the timing here. "No God," in a time of national catastrophy. Let's mark that well.
My young Jewish student, beautiful brown-eyed Susan, later asked me, with all sincerity, "Are we gonna get it, again?" I remembered not knowing what to say. Today, I would say, "You don't have to. I don't think it's inevitable. I think that some Jewish individuals are not doing Jewish people any favors."
David Horowitz
But what can the Jewish people do about such individuals? David Horowitz (and others) takes them on in hand to hand combat. Yet, he is still not understood to be the great Jewish leader he really is. This will take time, and history.
President George Bush just gave probably the best speech of his presidency. He spoke exactly the words that were needed by all parties concerned. It wasn't the longest speech, but it was the most accurate, the most practical, and the most hopeful, and it came when answers, solutions, and hope are most needed. Thank you, George W. Bush.
In this image taken from television, President Bush speaks to the nation from
Jackson Square in the French Quarter section of New Orleans Thursday Sept. 15, 2005.
AP Photo/Pool via APTN
Whoever said he was out of touch? He's in closer touch than Bill Clinton could ever think of being. I remember when Bill Clinton was here in Oklahoma City, speaking to the shocked population right after the Murrah Federal Building was bombed. I thought that particular speech was angelic in it's beauty and propriety. I couldn't imagine any words more comforting. I wrote a choral composition as a memorial for the bombing, and included a written introduction commenting on President Clinton's magical words.
But, nothing changed after that. Things got worse. The infiltration of our enemies into our country continued--for which we've paid a terrible price; the strength of our enemies increased abroad,in a most costly manner, and this was encouraged by Clinton policies; so his whole speech bit turned out to be like a dream, a drug trip or something. It wasn't reality at all, however fantastic it seemed at the time.
By contrast, I believe Bush's words do reflect reality. They are simple, forceful, and hopeful. There was no cover-up or distraction. There was no diversion from all the failures and triumphs of the stupendous challenge of Hurricane Katrina. It was message of stern and steady faith. Like a Pilgrim, Bush pointed us to that city "made without hands," a marvelous allusion to the New Jerusalem of Revelation, and to the security of the Father's love, which the present disaster can only drive us to.
Indeed, "Blest be the sorrow, kind the storm, Which drives us nearer home." Augustus M. Toplady (1740-1778). (Altered) This is the theme of America the Beautiful as well. "...Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears." Kathrine Lee Bates, 1893. This is the hope, the archetype, of every true American. It is the reality mingled with faith triumphant.
What more can the American people ask, at such a time of need? Spiritual encouragement, straight from the foundation of the country--that Bill Clinton could never offer. He wasn't a believer. This makes a big difference to believers. However foolish or hypocritical the scoffers say Christians are, however deluded and dangerous they want to claim faith makes a leader (like Kerry accused Bush during the debates), there is no comfort like the comfort of faith. That faith George Bush happens to have. And it means everything to believers.
No, he's not perfect. Gaping breeches of trust appear; gigantic neglect of the nations borders continues (and Lou Dobbs of CNN seems to be the only media figure who is consistently concerned); yet, Bush is clearly a man of faith.
Surely, his chances of being guided by Providence, by divine intervention, are a thousands times more likely than a man who has no belief or confidence in God, or who will not speak openly to the people about his faith. For those of us who hold faith in the Bible, we should pray, daily, for our President. That is our duty, indeed.
In a time when we're all wondering, "Who's next?" or "Who'll get the next hell on earth?" the very least we can do is prepare our minds and hearts for this new age of uncertain expectation.
Even if the media is responsible for hyping us up into a state of frenzy or doping us down into indifference, we can be sure Nature will wake us up. Nature, the Muslims, and the Mexicans. We can't really depend on our government, or our leaders, to make everything alright. We shouldn't, and they shouldn't think that they have to provide for the people in such a profound, complete way.
We the people must take more responsibility--even over our own government. We need to learn to give ourselves our own speeches. Tonight, Bush gave us a good lesson. Let's take it and run.
New Orleans has a curse upon it. Ask the voodoo priestests, the exorcists, and other pretenders, professional or enthusiast. And it's all connected to the Superdome, and perpetual plagues adherent to the NFL's New Orlean Saints.
You see, the Superdome was build on top of bulldozed graves. Yep. Another story of grave desecration. New Orleans is world famous for the above ground cemeteries that surround the city, built above ground because the water level is so high that the coffins start floating at about two feet in the hole. So we have "cities of the dead" in New Orleans, like Greenwood, Metairie, Old St.Louis, and LaFayette.
A couple of high school girls from Walters, OK, visiting one of the cities of the dead, 1941.
But one of old cities is missing. It's been missing since the early 1970's, when contractors bulldozed the tombs and the iron fences to make way for the Saints--and the Superdome. The Saints have been beleaguered by bad luck from the beinning. And now the Superdome roof is ripped to shreds, the field and halls are filled with a bloody mess, bodies, urin, defecation, and stench beyond description. A beautiful experience.
Josh Peter wrote about the curse of the Saints in 2004. (New Orleans Times-Picayune, February 2). It's a terrific article. You can read it on Jon Donley's Nola.com.
Here's one case where white people's bones were bulldozed, and no one said a thing. Now, American Indians certainly protest when our bones are treated like dirt. We have now the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, of 1990. I myself have noted, in protest to the desecration of Indian graves, that white people would never, ever let some developer come in to a white cemetery and just dig everything up, plow everthing away, just to put in a shopping mall.
From the Metairie Cemetery.
It looks like I was definitely wrong. When the price is right, businessmen will do anything. No thing is sacred. Nothing. It ain't the Saints who go marchin' in, it's the businessmen. In this case, the pro football industry. The graves just get plowed up, cleared off, and the sports teams finally trample them underfoot. Talk about dancing on someone's grave...
Just another dimension to the story. Even the Dome seems doomed. New Orleans was built in a bad place, over 300 years ago. Everyone has hell to pay for that. And after all, the French had expelled the American Indians who had originally dwelt there. I wonder how many Indian graves are in the ground there.
New Orleans has been a entertainment center for a a couple of centuries, full of parties, spooks, and spook parties. After Hurricane Katrina is finally over, and the mess is half-way cleaned up, the place will no doubt renew its macabre pursuits, along with the crime, the drug traffic, and everything else. Perhaps it will be rebuilt with safety in mind. But, New Orleans was always a gamble. Their luck just ran out, that's all.
What's left of the Superdome. The Louisiana Superdome sits
in the foreground as floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina con-
tinue to recede Sept. 11, 2005, in New Orleans. The New
Orleans Saints, left searching for a host site after Hurricane
Katrina ravaged the Superdome roof, announced plans Monday,
Sept. 12 to split seven home games this season between Tiger
Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., and the Alamodome in San Antonio.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
We don't know that the grave bit has anything to do with bad luck. Every nation is built on the grave of another. The world is cursed by that order. The earth holds our dead in its bosom. It does seem outrageous to defile such thought. But, I dare say stupidity is the greater curse. Gambling against nature, building a city on a swamp, a fortress on a fault, a home in a lava path, these things beg for rationality.
Ah, but let's add confusion to the brew of death. Let there be no moral of the story to protect us in the future. New storms, new earthquakes, new convulsions appear. What was once solid may not be so forever. Now we have Islamic mass murderes on the loose. That's a new one. New diseases, and new poisions. There is no end to peril. Let's just say it's all for a major perspective adjustment on life. Can we continue to say, "Let the games begin," when we know very well that they might end, too? Shouldn't the certainty of ending have some kind of serious effect on the way we play our games?
Where is the promise of His coming?
for since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were
from the beinning of the creation.
2 Peter 3:4
A lone poodle perches itself precariously upon a pile of trash while surrounded by
flood water in New Orleans on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2005. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
No one in New Orleans really believed that Hurrican Katrina would hit like it did. And no one in California really believes half the state will crumble in the next great earthquake. Few people really believe that the whole world may finally come to a cataclysmic end.
The Jews never believed Solomon's Temple would fall. Indeed, "The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem." Lamentations 4:12
Interestingly, Elie Wiesel offers the same kind of testimony on modern times. In his famous account of the Holocaust in Night (1960), which won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, Wiesel tells of one Moshe the Beadle (the 'usher') who's personal testimony was not believed. It was unpleasant and unwelcomed.
One day in 1942, Hungarian police came to Sighet, the little town in Transylvania where Wiesel lived and grew up. They arrested all Jews foreign to the town, and took them away in cattle cars on a train to Galicia. The deportees were soon forgotten, and several months went by. Life returned to normal in Sighet.
Then one day, Moshe showed up in town again. He had escaped. He told what had happened. When the train had crossed into Polish territory, the Gestapo had taken over. The Jews were taken off the train, put on lorries (truck/wagons) and driven into the forest. The Jews were made to dig huge pits in the ground, then the Gestapo began slicing their off heads, as each Jews was made to offer his neck. Babies were high into the air and used for skeet shooting. This was all near Kolomaye. Moshe escaped, being wounded and taken for dead. He must have crawled off, unnoticed.
He told his story to the people of Sighet. No one believed him. Twelve-year-old Elie Wiesel did not believe him.
They listen rather to London Radio, heard all about the Russian success. They figured Hitler was finished. An entire year went by, 1943. The Jews of Sighet even came to doubt whether Hitler even intended to "exterminate" the Jewish people.
In 1944, when Fascists took over Hungary, and German troops were allowed into the country, some people became anxious. But the German soldiers were polite, never intruding. They were housed with town people, even with Jews. A German officer lived across the street from the Wiesel home. The Germans were well-behaved. People came to accept them, and to scoff at the idea of fear. "Where is their famous cruety?" asked some incredulous town folk.
Wiesel says: "The Germans were already in the town; the Fascists were already in power, the verdict had already been pronounced, yet the Jews of Sighet continued to smile."
This is called denial. This is called optimism based on incredulity. Everyone knows the story. It was already happening. Old Moshe had even told them, having been an eye witness!
The greatest lesson of the Holocaust is overlooked: failure to believe the horrible, failure to understand the worst.
Denial is mistaken for faith. Foolish optimism is mistaken for cool, calm, rational collectedness. People don't want radical change. People don't want to leave their homes, their lives, their country. People don't want to leave.
Gustav Dore's 'Pale Rider,' or Death on the Pale Horse, from Revelation 6:7,8.
Why, crises are just political manipulations, or the fodder of religious fanatics, who market fear, and make merchandise of faith. Why, the world has been through this a thousand times. All things continue on as they have from the beginning. A war here and there, a storm here and there, nothing to freak out about. Why, people just need to calm down and be rational.
It seems self-destructive to believe that the worst is going to happen. To prepare for it seems a complete denial of hope. The Jews didn't want to leave Europe. Most didn't. They continued to believe that everything was going to be fine. They were in denial to the very last. It is an incredible testimony to the liabilities of faith, and the imminent error of self-deception in the name of confidence.
Only a profound optimist can survive the agonies of disaster, natural or man-made. But, a true believer may possibly avoid the calamity altogther. Is it a crime to anticipate disaster? It is irrational to prepare for the worst, to even leave one's home before it happens? Optimism doesn't always mean denial of warning. It might mean believing the very worst is going to happen. Optimism may mean 'faith' in disaster.
In the wake of Katrina, it is very clear that all these lessons fell on deaf ears, if they were taught to anyone at all. People become so preoccupied with their lives, however poor, however miserable, however slavish, and prefer not to consider any radical change. You'd think impoverished folk could more easily let go their hold on what little they possessed. But, in America, such people get off relatively easy for their sins of being so human. The government will take care of them. Indeed, a generous American public will pitch in and save them.
Pehaps it's good to follow the blame trail here, as long as it leads to improvement in all Americans. Being prepared, being willing to believe the worst can and will happen, this is a strange conditioning, but one that is necessary at this point in history. Islam is on the loose, Nature is increasing in fury, and the world has been trained to hate America. I say, prepare for the worst. And remember the government will not prepare you. Indeed, it may impede you. Preparation is our personal duty. It is between each individual and his Creator.
Today Americans remember the intentional, murderous Islamic attack on civilians on September 11, 2001. This, in the midst of the recovery from the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrinia. Probably, the next event will be unprecedented disaster in California, by earthquake, mud slide, and fire.
Families of the victims of the September 11 attacks walk to the footprints of
the World Trade Center during the fourth anniversary of the attacks in New York
September 11, 2005. REUTERS/Stephen Chernin/Pool
The people are learning institutional grieving, politicized sorrow and morality. Mass media and communication enable this electronically produced Collective Consciousness to evolve in great strength. It is difficult for any of us to avoid participation. We're thrown into the arena. Life has become one grand football game. Sometimes we're spectators, sometimes on the field, in the middle of the play. But we can't escape from the stadium.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday said he supported the decision to
remove Michael Brown as head of the federal relief effort in the stricken Gulf
Coast but refused to say if Brown would eventually be dismissed. In this photo
Cheney speaks with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers workers with Louisiana
Governor Kathleen Blanco during a tour of the 17th Street Canal area following
Hurricane Katrina in Metarie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, September 8,
2005. Lee Celano/Reuters
Politicians and religious leaders are becoming less and less effective, trustworthy, as it becomes clear that there are forces in the world that are out of their control. They are left with words, and ever increasing tyranny to make their words have meaning. Laws and more laws. That is their response to disaster.
Each disaster only further benumbs the world. We master our forms of compassion, wealth sharing, rhetorical responses. It's as if Mother Nature will make us all communists yet! If we won't share our wealth from moral principles, Nature will tempt us out of our nickel by appealing to our pride. Why, good people give. We have to give. Who would not want to be good? It's become a veritable competition in these days of disaster. Why, we can outdo our own government.
Is the world becoming more righteous, then? Is all this massive tragedy all to awaken us out of our solipsism and selfish fantasy? Is social efficiency in comapssion the divine purpose here?
Believers also must consider the precedents of divine wrath as well. Sometimes disaster is the direct result of a society's tresspassing the limits of divine forebearance. Sometimes humanity simply used poor judgement, like building on a major fault, playing Russian roulette with Nature. As time passes, it seems that Nature is putting more bullets in the chamber, so that our chances of avoiding disaster are less and less.
If it becomes sufficiently clear that it is God is He with Whom we have to do, rather than our own governments, then it is only logical to seek God. What is His will? What is His way? No one can lead us in this pursuit. It is our individual responsibility. In the Judgment Day, the Divine Court is the one place where blame will fall on no one but the guilty.
Governments can't stay disasters. Governments can't even stay the ill will of man. Churches seemed to have failed as well. Is this not then a grand opportunity for each person to search out the Lord, rather than depend on the undependable? Is it such a risk, to seek our Creator? Consider the psychological efficiency, at the least. Consider the relief from slavish dependency upon government or even institutional religion, and their perpetual disappointments and depressing results.
"Ye shall Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13. These words were given as Judah faced the oncoming dissolution of the nation, the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. It was the end of their world. God offered them mercy and comfort, but they had it coming, as far as disaster, and there was no escape.
We can at least be psychologically or spiritually prepared. We can't control disaster, even when we do prepare for it. It seems worse things are happening. We simply cannot control the course of nature.
As individuals, we can prepare only our own hearts. We can hope to avoid mass hysteria, voting trends that support tyranny to quell fears, and foolish policies that mistake communism for charity.
"Be prepared," says the Boy Scout motto.
The government of Mexico has committed the worst moral fraud in history: President Vicente Fox has sent a Mexican Army convoy into the United States. The force is bringing not arms or violence, but humanitarian aid for the victims of the hurricane. So they say. Katrina continues to bring out the deepest ironies of the age.
Mexican Army soldiers ride on a transport vehicle en route to the U.S.
border on Tuesday Sept. 6, 2005. An army aid convoy carrying water
treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies to feed the victims of
Hurricane Katrina is due to become the first Mexican military unit to
operate on U.S. soil since 1846. AP Photo/Milenio-Rocio Vazquez
Of course, with the quixotic inefficacy of the American response to the colossal catastrophy, there's room for all nations to get into the act of "helping" America. What a grand opportunity for our enemies to show their magnanimity, their human decency, their desire for peace.
NOT. They desire only to humiliate America. Mexico especially has disgraced the world with it's own inhumanity to it's poor people. So many are so poor that they risk their very lives to cross the desert and plant onions in America. That's Mexico. And now they want to send aid to Americans? What an incredible insult to all people, everywhere.
Why not send such aid to their own poor, instead of making criminals out of them, sending them across the border illegally, so they can get work illegally, get paid illegally, and make a joke out of the American national laws and borders? Why not set up camps and kitchens in Mexico, where their own people could use them?
It would have been better to send the convoy back, and never to have let it enter. It will add only more confusion, as the Mexican government attempts to justify its fraudlent invasion of America.
Is this fine Mexican military unit the same one that operates in Nuevo Laredo? It drove through the Texas Laredo. Are these outstanding Mexican soldiers the ones that joined the Mexican mafia, rather than fight for their own country? Are we quite sure that food and aid is all they're bringing into America? Mexico's northern borders are filled with bodies, buried after the people were killed in drug related conflicts.
Whatever comes from Mexico, send it back! That's the safest policy. Mexico is one huge, murderous drug haven as it is. Poverty, vice, violence, and fraud abound. That's what comes with Mexico.
Let no one be so naive as to accept this egregious Mexican gesture of generosity and care as the real thing. It cannot possibly be. This is yet an opportunity for Mexico to invade, and to bring more drugs into an already weak sector of the American population.
The glowing media report of this fraudulent act of Mexico shows just how deadly an enemy the media really is. The mainstream media is America's worst enemy, indeed. America must be grateful to Mexico?! America must be humble, and accept aid from our enemies. America needs to become exorably linked to the Third World What better way to do it? Let great America become dependent on the pitiful foriegn poor! What a triumph of political manipulation.
A nasty, stinking Trojan horse, that's all this is. Professing to care, sending aid, when Mexico's own people are victims of the worst corruption in the Western Hemisphere. It's a swayback horse they send, full of bots, lame legs, and rotton teeth. It brings only malignancy. Send it back.
Certainly the Third World can sense a great comradery in the catastrophy of Katrina and it's effects of thousands of poor black people in America. It all looks like some horror scene from Somalia, Zimbabwe, or Uganda.
Victim of politically created famine in Zimbabwe. Hungry children in Uganda.
And the way everything is working out, the aftershock management resembles the Third World, also. The Third World has been sending their poorest, their sickest, and their most unwanted, to America for some time now. Mexico is making a living off it, sending hordes of nameless poor. And now Louisiana is doing the same. The most unfortunate are being shipped all over the country.
As predicted, as understood, Louisiana may be quite happy to be rid of the festering vortex of poverty and crime which was New Orleans. Why, America is so grand, so great, so wonderful, America can absorb an infinite number of dependents. America can care for all manner of hunger, sickness, crime, and fatherless children; all homeless, all destitute. Apparently that what America is for, still.
Democrats, Liberals, the Dependency Advocates of America have long fostered the deplorable state of affairs in Lousiana, particularly in New Orleans. This is their product. This is their solution. Only this time, it's not so clearly "redistribution of wealth," as the Marxist axiom teaches; it's redistribution of the poor themselves, the homeless, and the sick. Move now the actual bodies of people. Transport them into different areas. Ship them to far away places; pleasant places, places where the conservative, productive people of the world are just feeling so guilty that they'll open their very homes to the forlorn victims of liberal policies.
Casualities of political war they are, these poor people! And yet, they've been in a social war zone most of their lives, many of them. Poverty, immorality, addiction, dependency, government shackles...they've long been survivors of dependency. They've had the skills to surive namelessness, meaninglessness, long before Katrina ever hit. Of course they'll likely wind up better off elsewhere. Many are already testifying that they are happy to be out, and that they are better off already.
Why? because of taxed-funded government assistance, and the charity of others. That's the reason. Never let that be forgotten. And in this case, the personal free-will charity of others has been more effective, initially. The real bureaucracy is just beginning. The nightmare of personal identification, as predicted, has only begun. The depth of fraud may never be known.
Welcome to the Third World, America. It was in your liberal lap all along. Thank you, liberals. Thank you for sharing your dregs with the rest of the country. It's a wonderful thing, to know that you've made America so desperately guilty that apparently half-witted leaders like Ray Nagin can depend on America to follow through no matter how senseless the accusations.
"Feds are spinning, people are dying." Nagin.
Why, the whole world can join in the act. The whole world can help support the most mistreated, most poor, most miserable, most unfortunate group of people in the world. America's enemies will surley give the most.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad
How satisfying, to participate in the American society in such a grand way. Yes, Third World, send your money now. Send all that money your governments have made off American industry which set up for you. Send that oil we taught you to drill for.
The noble Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela
And above all, help the American Negro. That will surely win angel's wings for you. That's all that counts. Help the slaves. Help the helpless. Help the down and out, put down, put out, by evil America.
Whatever works. Whatever feels good. Above all, hate rich white people. Enroll in Ward Churchill's ethnic studies course at the University of Colorado. Learn to articulate your hatred.
The management of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has been frustrated with an unprecedented intensity. But another other truth is surely emerging: the management before Katrina was equally chaotic.
A police car drives past a woman's dead body on the sidewalk at Magazine and
Jackson streets 02 September 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina. Some New Orleans police and firefighters were driven to
suicide by the trauma of trying to hold the city together in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin said.AFP/File/James Nielsen
Aside from all those issues, however, aside from the ineptitude, the rush to blame, to resentment, the juvenile racism on the part of black leaders like baffoon Al Sharpton and con artist Jesse Jackson, aside from the raw tragedy and honest dispair, the fact is, the management of the aftermath is remarkable and questionable in itself.
The majority of the stranded victims, black people, are being moved away from the Mississippi delta entirely. They are being moved out of state, in fact, moved to areas all over the country. Why?
It appears that the whole lot of them deserve the royal treatment now. The government really owes them this time. Every hotel in the country owes them a room. New Orleans Mayor Nagin has called for Las Vegas to open up all its hotels. And why not New York, why not LA? Name a city, any city. The victims deserve it. Top shelf cities. They all owe their accommodations to the black victims of mother nature, and the victims of the Bush Admnistration. That's it. Give them all a bigger-than-welfare check, free housing now, and the best of everything everyone has to give.
Why didn't the US army just set up tent cities right there in Louisiana? That could have been established practically over night. The administration of first aid, water, food, and clothing, could have all been accomplished with speed and efficiency. (Black people set up their own tents a while back, in DC. Remember Resurrection City?) Why now this shipping everyone out all over the country?
Something's deeply wrong here. It is wrong for the people. It is a disservice to them, their sense of home, their family connections, their identity. It is wholly discomfiting to them, and really makes them psychologically worse off than before. It's like their personal idenity has become nothing. They are like unnamed cattle. They need ear tags now. If everyone else wants to be courageously generous, heroically comapssionate, this is truly wonderful. They may be unpleasantly surprised, however, at the kind of experience they will have. Reality may slap them in the face very hard. Much of the dispair in the people is due to drug addiction, withdrawl, lack of domicile stability--all of which conditions existed before the hurricane. This is much of what's being shipped out, relocated, and re-established in other cities.
Victims of hurricane Katrina stay at the Astrodome stadium, where 16,000 evacuees
received food and shelter, in Houston, Texas, September 4, 2005. The Arena is being
used as an intake facility where medical care is provided and evacuees of Hurricane
Katrina are evaluated for assignment to other facilities. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
This mass exodus has been called evacuation, but it's really a kind of deportation. In the last analysis, it is a literal relocation. One could easily surmise that the lack of planning was actually a plan in itself. This delta area needed to be wiped clean, and rebuilt from the bottom up. That's what's happening, at any rate. Most everyone knows that New Orleans was one of the largest heroine entry ports in America, taking in some of the largest traffic in the world. And the place was built three centuries ago, hardly designed for the size of the modern population that has lived there.
The relocation business may prove a social ill beyond everyone's wildest dreams. The black mis-leaders and main stream media reporters are slow to admit the true cause of much of the misery. The reported suicides among city employees is no doubt related to drugs. If the people are so willing to be relocated, it is perhaps in hopes of finding a better environment in which to live. This reflects on the people themselves, and especially the black mis-leaders.
The massive relocation is an incalculable expense, whereas tent cities in Louisiana, on dry ground nearest New Orleans, would have been relatively cheap, as well as efficient. The communications required, now that the black folks are being spread out all over the country, are terribly complex, and would have been unnecessary, if everyone was kept in within the state. The legal ramifications are off the charts. This gives new meaning to the word "chaos." Who is who? Who can prove it? Who is a victim, and who can prove that? Moving them all out of state simply opens every door to every ill and fraud known to man.
This is the wake of Katrina. This is the second dimension. This is the other disaster.
The Mississippi Delta, particularly New Orleans, is like the WWII Warsaw Ghetto, with walls of water instead of brick. The remarkable thing about this Katrina catastrophy is the isolation of the victims. This is the immediate logistical cause of the delay in relief efforts. It's the water walls. Death, disease, and desperation are products of this agonal isolation.
Getting the victims out of the area has been the main intent of the first relief efforts. But there is something deeply amiss in all the logistics. Why ship people to San Antonio and Houston? Why so far? Why not set up camps on dry land in the area? What good is accomplished by breaking up families and further isolating them, not by water, but by miles?
Hurricane Katrina refugees are evacuated in a truck in New Orleans.
New Orleans made a 'desperate SOS' for help as authorities struggled
to stem a descent into anarchy and evacuate survivors of Hurricane
Katrina which is now believed to have killed thousands.
AFP/James Nielsen
What city can truly accommodate hordes of desperate folk? Who is prepared to take in all these 'strays' of nature? Why can't the burdern be disseminated within the counties and towns within the state of Louisiana? This is a freak situation. People's identities are becoming meaningless as we speak. It is like a mass explusion from their state.
It is heart-breaking to see, but it looks like some old-fashion case of slave trade. There is a weird shape to it all. Tens of thousands of people are being herded, like cattle. It is a migration of some kind. It is some kind of break up of the "community." It is a coerced re-settlement, cause by nature and neglect. One might even accuse those in charge of waiting for this to happen, so that the population could be broken up. (How's that for conspiracy theory and race planning?)
But, that's for later discussion. Right now, the people have to be cared for. They have nothing. Communication is broken, their connection to the world is gone. They are just bodies. They have names, but no bank accounts, no ability to buy or sell, and they are wholly dependent, and dying. They have no means of travel on their own. They have to be "shipped."
Wouldn't it be better for the army to set up camps closer by, so that law and order would be easier to enforce? The way this is happening, desperate people are being shipped out. And the criminal element is rampant in the wake. It is as if the individual has lost all identity. They are nameless, needy human beings now. Their lives are utterly disoriented. This, at least, temporarily.
And the black population, the majority who suffer the most, are the least prepared to deal with such a crisis. The social structures, the social realtions, well-known to anyone with experience in social work, are the most exposed, vulnerable, and unstable. The worst catastrophy has happened to those least prepared for it, and least able to bear it. It is absolutely heart-breaking.
New Orleans residents Cynthia Allen and her son Anthony
wait at the evacuation staging area on Interstate-10 in
Metarie, La., on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005. Thousands of
residents of the flood besieged city are seeking a way
out of New Orleans. Officials were airlifting the evacuees
to the staging area where they loaded buses bound for the
Astrodome in Houston. AP Photo/Dave Martin
May the Lord raise up a deliverer among them. They need it most. They've suffered the most. They need a special work by the hand of God. They need a black saint. Personally, I feel utterly helpless to help them. They need a greater help than other humans can give, really. They need something beyond their own dependencies, something more than looking to government and professionals to feed, clothe, and house them.
Pouring money into relief agencies enable the rescue workers to reach some, in time. But, prayer might be of more immediate effect. Many of these people need nothing less than a miracle.
This isn't about just deserts or culpability. This is about mercy.
Most of the people affected by Hurricane Katrina are black. They are American Negro, Creol, Haitian, and whatever other African nationalities may have been living in the affected area. At least, this is all that's being shown in the news reports and in the photographs. (Is the media prejudiced, too?) And, they appear to be mostly poor people.
The lawlessness, looting, moral abandonment, and violence accompanying this catastrophy is also something apparently associated with black people, in this case. The social dynamic among black people does have it's characteristics, and these aspects are clearly evident.
As yet, the news is carefully avoiding these observations, of course. It would be unforgivably politically incorrect to be honest in this case. But why? The news has shown its usual "compassion" and "lamentation" for tragedy, and manifest its normal avarice for agony. Great news, all this disaster. Great news, the lawlessness and violence among the victims, violence against the rescuers, violence.
Cruelty, heartlessness, and just plain meanness, all come out in technicolor in a situation such as the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The beginning is poverty, the continuity is indolence, and the climax is violence. The people were warned to move out days before. They so many were poor. Where could they go? How? Did they imagine the chaos? Did they not anticipate their own behavior? Perhaps some stayed on for the conscious purpose of looting. Why, they're not stealing at all. They're taking what's theirs, what they feel is theirs. Revolutionaries for the right, they are. Standing up (or wading) for their rights. Completely self-justified.
The others, the victims of their own society, will of course blame the white, dominant society. They will campaign for their justification. They are poor, they have been wronged, and it's all the government's fault. It's middle aged white men in charge, so it's middle aged white men who are to be blamed. How cruel of them to order troops in to control the situation! Double victims, these poor blacks.
U.S. President George W. Bush (R) and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld after
Bush spoke in the Rose Garden after a meeting with members of the White House
Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Recovery in Washington, D.C. August 31, 2005.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
But let's see how the news does handle this. So far, the news has not acknowledged the sociology of the circumstances. The news has not pointed out that the affected masses in the wake of Katrina are black people. The criminals are black people. The news can't handle that. Yet, the pictures don't lie. The film clips, the video, the pictures, all show exactly what the situation is. How long can the news hold out, and pretend not to be aware of what its own pictures show? How long can the news sustain it's professional blindness? How long can it bear the foolishness it creates, and the shame it engenders? How long can the public's anger be withheld from the media, who treats the public like it was a deaf, dumb, and blind moron?