A Dark Hour for America

They would not evacuate when the order was issued before the storm.

Now they are brandishing weapons, jeopardizing lives while insisting that they have a superior right to transportation out of the city.

As described by Fox News:

"We have suspended operations until they gain control of the Superdome," said Richard Zeuschlag, head of Acadian Ambulance, which was handling the evacuation of sick and injured people from the Superdome.

He said the National Guard told him that it was sending 100 military police officers to gain control. "That's not enough," Zeuschlag said. "We need a thousand."

He also said that during the night, when a medical evacuation helicopter tried to land at a hospital in the outlying town of Kenner, the pilot reported that 100 people were on the landing pad, and some of them had guns.

"He was frightened and would not land," Zeuschlag said.

He said medics were calling him and crying for help because they were so scared of people with guns at the Superdome.

What is it about the dark that seems to encourage the worst behavior from human beings? Christ spoke of the "hour of darkness" used by Satan (through Judas) to accelerate events into the Crucifixion. Perhaps it is the influence of the evil one that can create the illusion in the minds of a few that violence and threats are a true solution to their problems.

No doubt by now even the most stubborn sociopath wants out of the Big Easy. It's not hard to understand that. What is hard to understand is that a significant number of people are still clinging to their self-centered "me first" view of the world even in light of a catastrophe so large that they should be on their knees in gratitude that they are still alive. What is impossible to understand is why, rather than pitching in to help evacuate the most vulnerable to the Houston-bound buses, that they would instead threaten to hijack med-evac choppers, even to the point at firing shots at them.

America is better than this. New Orleans is better than this.

Similarly those who are attempting to make political hay out of the Gulf Coast disaster -- Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Move-On-Dot-Insanity, Cindy Sheehan, and others -- by attempting to lay blame on the president, or conservatives in general, without the slightest thread of proof, truth or logic, are in their own way destroying the fragile construct of civility that binds a nation during the worst of times.

This is a time for everyone to shrug off their everyday differences and pull together for the common good. While there will be plenty of time LATER for assessing what happened and who, if anyone, is to blame, there is no time NOW to waste when lives are on the line. Every shot across the bow by a tin-horn politician or political operative, every snide dig by the network news commentator, only gives aid and comfort to the worst fears and impulses of those who are worried, scared or so morally bankrupt as to not care if anyone survives, as long as they do.

Is this an important issue? You bet.

In ways that most Americans are only beginning to sense, what has happened along the Gulf Coast, especially in New Orleans, is going to change the entire nation because it has implications that go far beyond the devastation itself. How we respond to this calamity is as important as how it happened, perhaps even more so.

In the cosmic scheme of things, our society, our civilization -- our civility -- is on trial. We have the opportunity to make the case that we are still a good people, a God-fearing people, who can bind together out of mutual need and a love for our brothers and sisters in the human family.

If we fail to make a good case before the Almighty, He may just allow us to continue to descend the staircase of events that spirals into chaos.