If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's 7th anniversary in New Orleans, students found themselves anxiously awaiting Hurricane Isaac's arrival. Only time could tell if Katrina's destructions would be mirrored or forgotten.
I'm one of thousands of South Florida victims of a storm named Isaac that didn't qualify as a hurricane with a category number, but nevertheless qualified as a "5" in terms of the havoc and devastation its destructive rains left behind.
Everyone in our French Quarter neighborhood today is talking about Plaquemines Parish. Hurricane Isaac breached their levees, among others outside the federal levee system, and we have nothing but empathy.
As expected, Hurricane Isaac is now wreaking havoc in Louisiana -- and New Orleans in particular -- as the storm surge floods out coastal communities ...
To say there is a supernatural being that wishes to do you harm if you do not behave correctly, is to make our gods into abusive parents, or unapproachable, unappeasable authority figures.
Every time there have been these pronouncements about God acting in natural disasters to punish the wicked, you have to scratch your head and ask if you want that kind of God.
It seems a primal human need to make sense of events, to seek comfort and context for things that happen around us and to us. To hope for the best and be able to distribute some good vibes around the globe via the Almighty just seems to many like the right thing to do.
One year ago I sat here and called my congregational leaders and we reviewed the weather forecast and reluctantly decided to cancel church services the next day. By the middle of the next morning, Hurricane Irene had devastated the community where we live.
"Isaac Churns Toward New Orleans." "Arctic Sea Ice Hits Record Low, Scientists Say." "Severe Drought Afflicts Nation." "July 2012 Hottest Month on Rec...
As we wait to see what effect Isaac will have on the Army Corps of Engineers $10 billion-plus "hurricane risk reduction system" in New Orleans, I can't help thinking about last week's news from levees.org. When government adopts efficiency as its top priority, decisions like the Corps' get made. And people die.
Hurricane Isaac seems likely to remind Americans of George W. Bush. And the split screen on the TV newscasts -- part GOP convention, part Hurricane Isaac bashing into the Gulf Coast -- will pose a public-relations problem to the GOP of the first order.
Nearly a half million homeless Haitians face Isaac in 24 hours, but you'd never know it as the media and Republicans fret about the storm's threat to the party's national convention next week.
