The hurricanes in the Southwest have taken away a lot of the confidence we had that as a superpower we can overcome terrible times. We merely have to look at the faces of all those people who have been displaced and forced to seek shelter in states away from their homes to see how truly vulnerable we all are. In their faces, we see ourselves and we quietly thank God that we are not among those who have lost everything. But we know, too, that we are all linked by the other’s adversity, and what happens to ”them” can one day happen to us, too. No one is immune to disaster.
This week in the newspaper I saw a photo showing a long lines of wheelchair-bound elderly people who lived in a retirement community in Galveston, Texas, and who were being evacuated from the city as Hurricane Rita gathered force to hit the area. These elderly, white-haired people, looked so fragile in their wheelchairs, blankets wrapped around their laps and feet, blankets gathered around their shoulders. Some stared down, as if praying or resigned to what was ahead; others stared ahead at the camera taking their picture, their looks so helpless. They could not gather the strength to flee themselves, they were forced to accept the mercy of others who were arranging for their forced leavetaking to safety. What will happen to these people? I asked myself. Why are they so alone? Where are their children and families? Who will claim them? Is there what we all have to expect as we grow old and feeble?
In some ways, it seems to me lately, we appear to be living a life of retribution. Is God punishing us for our selfishness, our lack of caring by giving us a seemingly endless war in Iraq that seems to get deadlier day by day? Is God punishing us because we have abused nature, by not taking action to stop global warming which seems to be feeding these hurricances that wreak some damage on us. Is God punishing us for our greed for oil, for our uncaringness in the way we have exploited our natural resources? Is God punishing us because we have gone astray?
I don’t know the answers. All I know is that I look at the faces of these elderly people in the wheelchair I think it is as if they are being asked to pay for our sins because we live so selfishly and greedily in the world.
What do you make of what I’m saying? Am I off base? You are welcome to disagree with me and tell me I am wrong. I would like to hear that I am wrong.

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