Sunday, August 31, 2008

We need to humble ourselves before God

As hurricane Gustav bears down on the Gulf Coast, in eery reminiscence of Katrina, just three years earlier, with another major storm Hannah following in its wake, we all need to take this time to humble ourselves before the God in which we used to say we, as a country, trusted, and pray for our country.

In utter irony, these events occur at the same time as the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the other end of the Mighty Mississippi River. It is the Republican administration of W who sat on their hands while New Orleans drowned in '05.

In further irony, the great Minnesota get-together, the State Fair, has, this year, hosted one of the most extraordinary exhibits ever -- a replica of the limo President Kennedy was riding in when he was shot in Dallas is on display, along with hundreds of other items of memorabilia, and video clips of JFK at the debate against Nixon, plus a video of his last 24 hours. This car is a symbol of an event that put our country out of the center of God's will, the execution-style murder of a head of state, then covered up by the government itself.

There seem to be two 'Americas' -- the phony one built on lies that were only true for white men, and the real America, built on the suffering and labor of its people of every color and background -- and the dichotomy between them seems to have created a vortex of negative energy. New Orleans was the place where the plot to kill JFK was hatched. New Orleans is the one place the government does not want us to look for answers.

We need to accept God's judgment and work together to put our country in the center of God's will. I hope it is not too late.

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