No Quiet Desperation

"There but by the Grace of God go I." From Nola.com: "NewsFlash - Superdome evacuation disrupted because of arson and gunfire; More National Guardsmen are sent in":

Fights and trash fires broke out, rescue helicopters were shot at and anger mounted across New Orleans on Thursday, as National Guardsmen in armored vehicles poured in to help restore order across this increasingly desperate and lawless city.

"We are out here like pure animals. We don't have help," the Rev. Issac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where corpses lay in the open and evacuees complained that they were dropped off and given nothing.

An additional 10,000 National Guardsman from across the country were ordered into the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast to shore up security, rescue and relief operations in Katrina's wake as looting, shootings, gunfire, carjackings spread and food and water ran out.

But some Federal Emergency Management rescue operations were suspended in areas where gunfire has broken out, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said in Washington. "In areas where our employees have been determined to potentially be in danger, we have pulled back," he said.

"Hospitals are trying to evacuate," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan, spokesman at the city emergency operations center. "At every one of them, there are reports that as the helicopters come in people are shooting at them. There are people just taking potshots at police and at helicopters, telling them, "You better come get my family.

Police Capt. Ernie Demmo said a National Guard military policeman was shot in the leg as the two scuffled for the MP's rifle. The man was arrested.

"These are good people. These are just scared people," Demmo said.

I don't want to say I wouldn't be among them. I don't ever want to have my character so tested. Yes, the ruthless displays of looting, along with the growing violence, dishearten me. Who wouldn't feel a sickening anger or sorrow over it? Still, I won't call for anyone's summary execution. I won't damn any survivor of Katrina's fury or the 17th Street Canal's levee breach. I'm not there. I don't face the heartbreak and frustration of watching all that I worked for get laid to waste. I don't wander the streets looking for help, information and necessities--and finding nothing. I don't experience the horrendous temptations that seduce the survivors of natural evil such as a hurricane or flood.

Therefore, while I acknowledge the truth of moral and natural law, I won't presume to teach a lesson I haven't learned. I won't read hearts and pronounce divine judgement. Our Lord will measure out justice just fine without me. What he wants from me is what he wants from all of us. That would be to bear his mercy to his suffering children. That would be to act as the brothers and sisters that we are to everyone that suffers from this disaster. Even the Looters and Pump-pimps.