One Side to Two Hurricanes
By James Bowden (09/08/05)
The wrong side of a hurricane is the northwest wall of the eye. That’s the side of Hurricane Isabel that slammed into my town, Poquoson, Virginia (pop. 11,500) at high tide in September 2003. The flooding was like the big hurricane in 1935. Over 50 homes were destroyed, 200 took water and over half had tree damage in a town of 4500 houses. I stayed home with an adult daughter and my dog to ride it out. We had only one big pine go down. Looking beyond my own blessings I saw one side of Isabel. I saw the best in Virginians.
I wrote (http://www.americandaily.com/article/1780) in the welcomed pride of reflected glory. I feel honored as a neighbor and co-citizen in the Commonwealth of Virginia when I see folks around me living the values of life - first, property - second, and generosity - always. The side I saw of hardship, graced to be absent the pain of death, was tested values working, courage from each person of every age and condition, self-reliance and serving the community, public official competence, and, of course, good works from selfless Judeo-Christian faith.
Hurricane Katrina was much bigger in area, stronger in destruction and deadly. I watched what happened one side at a time.
The first day was the familiar side of expressions of disbelief at the destruction. There was some relief in Louisiana that New Orleans was okay and some caution in Mississippi that their coast was wiped out worse than Hurricane Camille (‘69). Then, the levees broke and New Orleans flooded.
The following days were the unfamiliar side of local and state government officials confused and overwhelmed while pleading and criticizing in public, not leading, not taking charge, not following their own plans, and leaving tens of thousands of their citizens suffering needlessly.
And, from day one of the hurricane one side, Liberals, kept up the drum beat of the fanatical politics of socialist junk science. One side, and one side alone, imagines a natural disaster could be avoided by a flawed treaty. This side, that thinks life just happened out of inanimate chemicals and evolved from one species to another, believes the Kyoto treaty would mitigate hurricanes. Like there were no hurricanes before Global Warming? Like unrestricted pollution from India and China wouldn’t cause hurricanes but Western pollution would?
Global Warming is to socialism as ‘fetus’ is to abortion. Liberals create a new ‘scientific’ reality to dress up an affront to morality, an insult to God, and a contradiction to scientific knowledge – that will pass test for politics.
Yet, the most remarkable side of Katerina is the ugly political profile of Liberals grimacing to spit out their bile to blame President Bush – no matter what. Furthermore, the Liberal attacks show the overflow of their hearts. Their hearts are cold, calculating, cruelly divisive and hate-filled rage machines. It is terrible and sad to behold.
Liberals look at suffering people and see their skin color.
Liberals look at how much, or how little, people make to measure how much they lost. Liberal sympathy is doled out by class, not conscience for loving all others.
Liberals watch local and state governments succeeding in Mississippi and Alabama while failing in Louisiana and blame the Federal government for criminal conduct in Louisiana.
Liberals expect the Federal government to be nanny.
Liberals say too much of the Army National Guard is in Iraq, but are silent when the Guard is successfully employed by an Active Duty Army general.
Liberals find fault in FEMA for leadership, tardiness, inefficiency, and being re-organized post 9-11 under the Department of Homeland Security without considering the truth timeline of who did what, when, where, and how. Liberals assign, automatically, ‘why’ things went wrong to Bush’s personal, and America’s national, evils of racism and class insensitivity.
Someday in the future fault may be found at the Federal level. If so, a judgment must be made, as much as Liberals hate judgmental people, on who is held to what accountability. Conservatives will cheer if the judgment was fair. Liberals will stew in self-righteous rage and press on to punish the innocent, if the blame can be given to Republicans and President Bush. Liberals consume themselves with irrational hatred worse than cancer and fiercer than fire.
Meanwhile, the generosity of the Nation pours out to victims of hurricane Katrina. Again, the awesome power of our Armed Forces flexes its muscles.
Americans need to see more of this serving, re-building better side of a hurricane.
James Atticus Bowden
Isaiah 59:21
(Printer friendly version) Email: James Bowden
