What is needed. What is not.

I've once more had to delete the hate-filled rantings of an idiot, this one linking to more hate-filled rantings of yet another idiot.  The moonbats are baying and many of the sane are openly questioning how the baying is helping. 

The Anchoress is one of the sane:

The sad people who sit around like self-gratifying monkeys, constantly working their hate, working it and working it, are longing for release - for an orgasm that can only occur upon the utter political, personal and (for some) physical destruction of a human being named George W. Bush. Until they have that destruction, and that orgasm, nothing else matters. Nothing. And nothing can be seen by them, except through the prism of that hateful desire.

I wish I could talk to some of these folks - really talk to them - but I know I cannot. I know they have no openness to hear anything I have to say. I wish I could ask them - and folks like Jack Cafferty and Katie Couric and others who take the very easy way of simply “blaming Bush” for everything, and who are simply running on hate - where has your hate taken you? Where do you think it will take the country? Assuming you still want what is best for America, do you think unrelenting hate is what she needs at this moment - that it can be the catalyst for recovery and healing in our nation?

I know of no therapy that brings about healing through hatred.

Hate tends to consume the hater, and I read some of the remarks some folks are making and think…are you so in love with your hate that you cannot let it go long enough to say “let us band together and put politics aside, for now…” because this really is not the time to drive political daggers - it is not the time to try to figure out if the traditionally Democratic leadership in this state or that contributed to a city’s unpreparedness and vulnerability. It is not the time to sit and seethe with resentment or guffaw in anticipatory glee about how “this will sink the Repugs in ‘06!”

Do you not see what is wrong with thinking this way, at this time? Do you not understand that while people are dying, or being threatened with violence, when they have lost their homes, their schools, their families, their memories, their whole pasts - then it is perhaps a time for silence, and for a bit of prayer, and for regretting where we have all fallen short, and then it is time to simply open the heart, open the heart, and try to do what you can to help? Just help, without the harangue?

But…perhaps a heart shrivelled by unrelenting hate cannot be opened. How grievous that is to contemplate.

There can be little doubt that mistakes have been made here, mistakes that have contributed to death, mayhem, and misery.  More disconcerting however is the message this is communicating to the enemy.  A message that advertises to all with eyes to see that we are nowhere near where we need to be in terms of responding to a disaster.  Let's pray that the enemy hasn't the means to take advantage of our current weakness.  Let's pray that they won't take this as a cue to move their plans forward toward execution.  Let's pray that we have the time needed to assess what went wrong and how to correct it.

What however is needed now is the setting aside of the hatred and the focusing on how this nation can unite and meet the needs of those affected by Katrina.  I hope to play a part (albeit small) in that focusing, I hope to enlist the aid of those who guest blog here in reporting the news that communicates the good and the decent that is taking place.

There is a time for assessment, for blame finding, for pointing of fingers (hopefully productively) but we're not at that time now.  There are still people who need to be rescued, people who need to be fed and given water, people who need to be sheltered.  That must, for now, remain the focus.

The rest is baying.

Comments

[Feeble Knees]

No doubt there will eventually be a congressional inquiry into the events that unfolded after Katrina made landfall. I pray that it is done quickly and in a nonpartisan way, because the thousands of people affected and the rest of the nation do deserve to know why things broke down so badly.

Having said that, you're right - insane rantings aren't feeding people, personal attacks and diatribes aren't getting the supplies to those who need them any faster.

We're either part of the solution or part of the problem. Each of us needs to decide what we want to be, and how to conduct ourselves towards that end.

[lettheonewithoutblame]

Interesting...

so how do you reconcile your words about "baying" and examination at a later time with the post on Planned Parenthood?

[Zossima]

>>The sad people who sit around like self-gratifying monkeys, constantly working their hate, working it and working it, are longing for release - for an orgasm that can only occur upon the utter political, personal and (for some) physical destruction of a human being named George W. Bush. Until they have that destruction, and that orgasm, nothing else matters.

Yeah, I think this is going on. It's wrong. Yet from my perspective it went on when Clinton was in the White House, too. I think we christians have got to be careful that our allegiances don't affect our judgment.

[Presbypoet]

There is:
How can we do this better?
And
Lets find someone to blame.

The first may actually do something useful. The second most likely will find a scapegoat, and sacrifice it.

The first may save lives by finding lessons learned.
The second, by appearing to do something, while doing nothing, may cost lives.

The first can be used to teach others what not to do.
The second offers no lessons, except possibly to CYA, to make sure no one knows your mistakes.

Which do you think congress will choose?

[Zossima]

Presby,

In between those two is justice. Justice will find a way to do it better, assign responsibility for seeing that it is done so, and also determine if there is anyone truly guilty for not doing it this time.

But I do agree that Congress will find scapegoats. Scapegoating is those in power doing the CYA via the sacrificial lamb. It is a way of denying responsibility and culpability. It is Pilate washing his hands. While the "scapegoat" may actually be guilty, scapegoating ensures that justice is not actually done.

One of my favorite theological ideas comes from French anthropologist Renee Girard who has studied the notion of scapegoating in ancient mythologies. He contends that one of the central messages of Judaism and Christianity is the end of scapegoating. Whereas pagan mythologies told stories about scapegoats being selected and either killed or sent away from the community, in Judaism, the sins were placed on the lamb, and in Christianity, the sins are once and for all placed on the Lamb. That doesn't mean we don't seek and enact justice (hence, the stories of Achan and Annanias and Saphira), but we don't blame people for that which we can/should exercise responsibility.