BE PREPARED FOR CATASTROPHE; DO NOT COMMIT TRAGEDY

# Writing about Hurricane Katrina, I feel a bit like Al Franken doing his news bit on Saturday Night Live: You're probably wondering how this affects me, Rhonda Keith. It doesn't affect me directly, but it impinges on my consciousness, which I share here, point by point, partially and disjointedly.

# I distinguish between catastrophe and tragedy, based roughly on my literary education. Let's call a catastrophe a calamity that occurs from without, such as a natural disaster, and a tragedy that which is caused by human character. It's hard to imagine the widespread and varied suffering of so many, caused by pure physical disaster. All we can do is try to make some small contribution toward relief. Americans are good at coming to the aid of the afflicted, here and abroad. One woman near here, for instance, has taken about 43 of her relatives from down south into her small apartment. But what can be done about the tragedy of the failure of human beings to face catastrophe nobly, with compassion and self-sacrifice for their neighbors?

# I can understand why so many people didn't evacuate. Some, of course, were physically unable to leave, some stayed behind with their aged or infirm relatives, some didn't want to leave their pets or property, some thought Katrina wouldn't really be that much worse than hurricanes they'd survived before. Some just didn't want to leave home, and still don't. That's their choice. Once people were trapped by flood waters, they had few choices. There's nothing to do but stay calm, behave decently, try to help others if possible, and wait for help.

# Some people acted like Bill Murray's weatherman character in the movie Groundhog Day, but worse. He went through a stage when he realized that since he had no future, his acts had no consequences. The rapists and killers and the people firing guns at the rescue helicopters are stuck at that phase of consciousness. Or maybe it's drugs, I don't know. Drugs never had that effect on me. Different drugs, I suppose.

# There's little point in blaming the government for not doing enough fast enough. Both government, at several levels, and the people who stayed in the path of the storm were slow to understand and prepare for the danger. People in New Orleans must have always known the dangers of living below sea level. It's shameful to make political hash out of this mess. What adult expects government, local or federal, to act impeccably? George W. is neither Satan nor God. It's madness to make racial hash out of it. In case anyone's not sure, I am sure that white people did not conjure up the flooding, the levee breaks, etc., in order to kill lots of poor black folks. Some people are actually saying this, even after seeing white soldiers or Navy Seals lowering themselves out of government helicopters to rescue black people from the roofs of submerged buildings, within a day or two of the storm. Maybe the racial blame is a tactic to divert attention from the shocking behavior of a few of the survivors. I also don't think anyone intentionally broke the levees in order to force the federal government to come up with more funding. Previous funding to Louisiana, by the way, was diverted from levee projects by local politicos. One of my Venezuelan students told me that in 1999, Caracas suffered from an even greater disaster. The city sits on the ocean and below mountains, and weeks of rain caused landslides that drowned or buried one-tenth of the 500,000 inhabitants. There also the politicians started making hay out of it, blaming the other parties.

# One hysterical newsman said that "Americans" are shocked, shocked! to see all those poor people on TV, because they just haven't seen poor people before, and how they live. Like they've all been quarantined down south and suddenly escaped and got caught on camera. I've seen poor people before. I've even been poor. Poverty is not shocking, and it's not unfamiliar. Anyway, what we call "poverty" in the United States is laughable compared to poverty elsewhere in the world. Poor people here mostly have enough food and don't die of starvation, they are not dressed in tatters (I've seen beggars on the streets wearing very good athletic shoes and new clothes), they often have vehicles and TVs and CD players and cell phones, etc. Homeless people are usually mentally ill and/or addicts. The poor people we see on TV now are rather worse for wear and not looking their best.

# I've carried a pocket knife most of my adult life, finally got a decent Victorinox Swiss Army gadget with screwdrivers, tiny scissors, hole punch, and so on. It's not dainty and feminine but it's frequently useful. An elderly military wife told me I was a real military daughter because I carry this handy item. My dad was a career military man. We moved quite a bit, and I spent half of my childhood in Florida. From time to time my father would get us ready for a hurricane with candles and bottled water, taping the windows and so on. We never experienced serious damage or had to evacuate. But when I was on vacation in Florida almost 20 years ago with my younger son, staying in a tent on a Gulf Coast campground near where I grew up, I got us out of there when I heard a hurricane warning on the radio. It was a beautiful sunny day, but you just don't know for sure. Some English tourists staying in the campground laughed at me; they thought it might be fun to experience a hurricane, and they stayed. My son and I went to a motel. If we'd heard orders to evacuate, I would have started driving north. As it turned out, the storm passed us by.

# I sometimes speculate on what I would do in various emergencies. I should buy those Worst-Case Scenario books, but haven't yet. I did buy Army Field Survival Manuals for me and for my sons after seeing The Blair Witch Project, so we'd know how to get out of the woods. My daughter-in-law Kate pointed out that those kids in the movie were bewitched, so perhaps practical information wouldn't have helped. People can be bewitched into paralysis or hysteria by their own thoughts. Totally relying on the government ~ or totally disbelieving government warnings ~ can mean abandoning your own innate survival instincts.

# I like to think I'd survive most things. My grandparents, after all, were poor, independent subsistence farmers, who expected nothing from the government when times were hard, such as during the Great Depression. When my grandfather fell off a horse and broke his back, he got up again. When my grandmother developed cervical cancer and was too busy to have it removed, she kept working until eventually it fell out. Given the fact that I'm still reasonably able-bodied, I would have paid attention to storm warnings and left town, walking and hitchhiking if I didn't have a car.

# God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Psalms 46

# Walk on.

Bernadette Roberts Workshop

I am organizing a workshop with Bernadette Roberts, a remarkable Christian contemplative and author of three books:

What is Self? : A Study of the Spiritual Journey in Terms of Consciousness

The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center

The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey

This workshop, called The Essence of Christian Mysticism, will be held on the weekend of May 5-7, 2006, in Loveland, Ohio. For more information, go to Bernadette Roberts Workshop. The site may be updated from time to time.

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