On the Hurricane

I had wanted to hold off on commenting about the hurricane because I am still dealing with my own reactions to the disaster and I don't have any real words of wisdom to offer. I don't know why the flood took place and I can't read anything into the mind of God which might provide some sort of an explanation. Moreover I doubt that any explanation I could offer would be satisfying, consoling, or accurate anyway. I guess the human heart will offer a better response to this disaster than the human voice or the human mind.

I do want to voice some sadness though at the reactions of some who are either using this tragedy for personal gain - the looters as well as those who are using the tragedy to support the same old political causes. I don't care right now whether or not the hurricane was due to global warming or Bush policies or to failures of the Clinton administration. Tired political rhetoric isn't going to rebuild homes or to save lives. If you don't have something to actually help people right now - shut up and try using your hands for once.

I also want to voice my disappointment at the people of Vatican radio 105. Now, I have listened to Vatican radio for sometime and I enjoy hearing the perspectives of Catholics around the world. Vatican radio has offered some very good programs and certainly doesn't advocate a particular agenda. However, their failure to give one second of their radio show over the past days to the hurricane makes me wonder if there isn't a real anti-American bias in the show. For example, the show for 9/01 spent a good deal of time interviewing someone criticizing US policies toward an International Criminal Court. That may be important, but not right now. As today's episode was coming to a conclusion, the announcer did say that tomorrow's episode will address the hurricane to which I will gladly listen but also wonder what took them so long.