Shock and Awe

Many strange and seemingly unrelated things have been coming to mind as I hear of the horror that is today’s New Orleans. A few examples:

1) The stealth bomber
2) The fireworks show/bombing raid of the first night of the Iraq War
3) The missile that scientists, a few months back, precisely targeted to hit a meteor.

The connection, of course, is the stark contrast of what our society is capable of, and what it actually chooses to do. We can guide a missile to hit a moving target in precisely the correct spot, but we don’t do what we can to avert a major human crisis, right here on earth.

Hindsight is 20/20….my imagination is filled with wonderful ways that more of the people of New Orleans could have been saved. I imagine a convoy of buses, taking people who can’t afford to leave to higher ground. I imagine a disaster relief fund, which guarantees the fleeing refugees a home of some kind to come back to. I imagine a military force like no other sweeping in after the city was flooded, enforcing order, finding the lost. I think of the hundreds of planes and soldiers and health professionals that could have descended upon the city IMMEDIATELY after the winds died down…..I even think of the amazing inventions that could have helped – levee control devices, high-speed transport for victims, portable shelters and hospital facilities….sure, these are wild ideas, but think about the items on my list above.

We don’t lack imagination, we lack vision.

We don’t lack ingenuity, we lack compassion.

We have the people power to help, deployed elsewhere.
In this, we lack leadership.