Woe to them that call good evil

NOTE: Sorry. I didn’t post a blog entry Thursday; Busy gearing up for a small relief effort unrelated to Hurricane Katrina; although it consumed some energy, my roll is too minuscule to bother writing about. Now for Friday’s posting:

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One time years ago during a disaster, I got caught in a gun battle between armed looters and National Guardsmen.

Both sides shot at me.

People have also spit on me, thrown garbage cans at me, thrown bricks and bottles. I have been gassed, and threatened with knives, an ax, and a Phillips head screwdriver (which incidentally makes a dandy weapon if you want to carry a weapon but don’t want to be caught carrying something that can be called a weapon).

Now and then over the past 40 years I have dabbled on the fringes of disaster relief as a volunteer whenever it struck my fancy.

No big deal. I’d like to say that Christian compassion motivated me, but on reflection, I now realize that I got in these situations because I was young and caught up in the excitement of the moment. Being a Christian had little to do with it; I’d be there for the adventure, for the fun, for the warm fuzzies of being a helper.

Too old and lazy for that kind of excitement now. I just watch it on tv.

And last night I saw an outrage.

On a tv program called Slimetime (why boast their Google ranking) one segment featured a pig fat attorney, laden with gold watch and rings, blasting relief efforts and saying that aid was slow or being withheld because many suffering in the aftermath of Katrina are black!

Sure.

Good thinking.

The guy dangling on a rope from a helicopter to chop open a roof to rescue people trapped in a flooded attic knows the skin color of the people under that roof???

Ok. The pig fat lawyer is welcome to his opinion.

But, with all the facets of tragedy and misery and heroism going on hourly, why did the tv choose to air that man's nonsense over other things?

Were they short of film showing well-dressed guys in book-lined offices talking?

Pathetic!

I wonder why tv news tries to make bad situations worse?

Could it be that since the Nixon era the main way for a journalist to garner prestige is to open some new Pissgate? To sit on the sidelines like the Black Dwarfs in Narnia’s Last Battle and plunk arrows at those Stallions rushing to aid in the crisis?

And this morning, other media persons jumped on the bandwagon criticizing aid agencies, President Bush (and no I did not vote for him!), the military, government agencies and whoever else in sight, for nor working hard enough or fast enough!

Woe! Woe! Woe to those who call good evil, or evil good.

But why does this upset me?

Why am I so judgmental?

That’s a problem within my own soul.

In the 1660s Brother Lawrence, a lay brother in the bare-foot Carmelite order – actually, he seems to have been a dishwasher in the kitchen – wrote one of the most popular and widespread religious books ever written, The Practice Of The Presence Of God. Brother Lawrence’s tiny book, only 64 pages, is one of the most helpful I’ve ever read; and I try to steep myself in its ideas.

One passage says, “That as for the miseries and sins he heard of daily in the world, he was so far from wondering at them that, on the contrary, he was surprised that there were not more, considering the malice sinners were capable of; that, for his part, he prayed for them; but knowing that God could remedy the mischiefs they did when He pleased, he gave himself no further trouble”.

Knowing that God can remedy…

Thus, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, I should think on these things.

But, Lord, I ask, what about rabble-rousing tv news coverage???

And a thought comes to mind, an almost quote from the poet Milton:

They also serve
who only stand and bitch.