Confessions of a Diaster Junkie

I do not know why I have not been able to drag myself away from the news channels. All my family are fine, one house is somewhat damaged and needs a new roof but the other house in Moss Point is perfectly fine. No one is hurt. I praise God for all of that, yet I weep at the misfortune of others. My older daughter lost everything. My younger daughter didn't even lose power.

From God's eye view, New Orleans is just a speck on the horizon. Can't even tell where it is. And yet, God is absolutely in control. We may have trials and tribulations beyond the scope of our imaginations, but not beyond God's ability to protect, test and save all for His glory. Why do bad things happen to good people? Because there is much to learn, much to minister, much to bring glory to God. God does not get glory from the bad things that happen. God is glorified when His people act like Jesus and when people who do not know Him, get the opportunity to meet Him through His children.



Here in North Louisiana, people have opened their homes and churches and other places; food aplenty is spread on tables; sacks of groceries are given to those who are now living in their RVs and travel trailers with no money to buy food; schools have opened their arms to children that have no homes. Amidst all the kindness there are faces of tragedy because they have lost everything. Among those are the dissatisfied who will never be satisfied. They are in a cool, dry place with food and water and a cot to sleep in, but they "want out..." It comes from a society of entitlement. These are the people who are born into poverty but believe they are owed a livelyhood whether they work for it or not. Or is it a majority that feels that way? The bible teaches that those who do not work, do not eat. Where did we as a society go wrong?

I think it is the fault of yellow journalism. The anger gets heard and the gratefulness takes the back seat. Gratefulness is not exciting. Because most of those affected have dark skins, then it must be a racial issue. Poppycock. It is a disgrace to journalism that most of the reporters I have seen the past several days have sensationalized and catagorized the events to the point that it absolutely must be someone's fault the people in this trauma were not instantly "beamed" to safety.

The question was asked of a reporter, "How long did it take you to get where you are standing?" The reporter answered, "Two days." General Honore said, "Well, there you go. That's why it's taken us so long to get here." Reporters latched on to the fact that school buses were standing by for 2 days before being allowed to go into New Orleans. Some of our buses were in that pack. The drivers were told before they left that they would not go into the war zone without armed guards on each bus. Why is that?

Did you see the story about the overturned bus just north of Lafayette and south of Opelousas? An angry evacuee tussled with the bus driver while the bus was in motion! The bus overturned and 17 were injured and 1 was dead. That's why.

As I watched this story unfold, I noticed quite a bit of idiocy in the reporting, false accusations, false reports, hysteria, blatant use of emotional words designed to wrench the heart and stir up anger. I saw lots of angry reporters. My friends, when that happens, then the journalist disappears and inflamation appears. For me, the travesty of horrible journalism was surpassed by the tragedy of the storm aftermath, absolutely. The aftermath will be cleaned up and cities will be rebuilt, but I'm afraid that the integrity of journalism is now an oxy moron.

You can go to Dee Andrews blog to get a close up view of what's going on at the coast. Her husband is running a newspaper in Picayune and is printing real news, not slanted or canted toward an agenda.

Here is what I know. My brother-in-law, Jimmy, is an operations manager for Acadian Ambulance and was working for 36 hours straight with triage. The helicopter evacs dropped off patients and left. Jimmy said he saw more dead bodies in the past few days than he had seen his entire career as an EMT and a Paramedic. I ache for the unsung heros. Those doctors and nurses who would not leave their patients and those paramedics that worked night and day to save as many lives as they could. The enormity of this cannot be fathomed.

We have been praying for all those effected by Katrina, join us.