Reckoning in New Orleans

[Guest guest]

Reckoning in New Orleans

 

by Marianne Williamson

 

Something very important is happening here --something more than simply a

hurricane,or the suffering of thousands who were neglected by

their government during a time of great need. Most worldly occurrences reflect

deeper truths. What is happening is a gigantic reckoning,as Americans are forced

to come to terms with how very, very naked is the Emperor who we thought had

such incredible clothes.

 

We are raised in the United States of America to believe that our government is

the strongest in the world, that as Americans we are basically protected, and

that our country is basically good. It is

cognitive dissonance for us to be confronted with evidence to the contrary, and

yet such evidence has been piling up fast and furiously during this odd and

potentially catastrophic phase of American history.

 

There is nothing strong about rushing into a unilateral war based on faulty

intelligence, thereby squandering the resources necessary with which to take

care of your own people; there is nothing protective about a government that

apparently didn't monitor events on the ground in New Orleans any better in

fact,less well than the average

viewer of CNN; and there is nothing good about taking care of the rich at the

expense of the poor.If it took a Level 5 hurricane and the huge suffering of

thousands to bring those facts to light, then at least it can be said that there

is value in this horror. If enough Americans are beginning to wake up and face

the awful fact that our country?s basic

functioning has become infected by a soulless sensibility, then perhaps the

suffering on the Gulf Coast will not have been in vain.

 

Regarding the abysmal response of our government to the hurricanes aftermath,

there is a lot of talk right now about accountability.Some argue we should have

the discussion today, while others argue that that discussion should wait for a

more propitious time.But there is a danger in waiting, for a governmental status

quo has talent for co-opting criticism as long as it can buy enough

time.Passions cool;memories become revised and faded. Six months after a

disaster,the government appoints an independent commission to find out what

really

happened but by the time the commission releases its final report there is not

much sense that too many people are listening. The people are exhausted by then;

they're trying their best to move on.

 

And the status quo knows this; that's part of its game. Do whatever you want;

act horrified and remorseful for a minute whenever too much suffering results as

a part of your actions; then put off the

accountability conversation until people are too tired to care anymore.This is

not a new pattern in America. What might be new what I sense might be happening

is that people are waking up to it now. And as soon as we wake up, then the

pattern will end.

 

Abraham Lincoln said there is not too much evil any American government can

perpetrate, as long as the people remain vigilant. He was referring to the fact

that we have federal elections every two years, through which we can replace the

entirety of the House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate. The

ultimate accountability conversation is written into the U.S. Constitution;it is

called elections. At this particular juncture, that means the mid-term elections

of 2006.

 

The president prides himself on running the government like a

well-runbusiness.That of course makes him the chief executive. And if the

government failed, then he failed.

 

Fool us once, and maybe their tricks were dirty; fool us twice, maybe their PR

was too good; fool us now, and perhaps we just deserve to be fooled. From war to

hurricanes, oh America, the alarm bells of needless

human suffering are going off everywhere. A nation who refuses to wake up at

this point is in a dangerous slumber.The nightmares are upon us

now. They will remain until our eyes are opened and we have awakened to the

truth.

 

 

 

" When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have

peace. "

Jimi Hendrix