Unbelievable

It saddens me to see what has happened within our country in the past week. People without food and water for three days. People who are stranded with no homes, no food, no shelter, little or no hope. Those left, especially in New Orleans, are those whose only crime is that they are poor. Some wonder, "Why didn't they leave?" Uh...because they don't have enough money for cars. This tragedy happened at the end of the month...the time when many of us but especially those on fixed incomes are at the low end of their money supply. Their checks would have arrived most likely Thursday. But where are they to be delivered?

Throngs of people offering their vehicles to use for transportation of people and supplies. Many groups gathering for prayer, gathering to create medical kits and flood buckets to help somehow with the cleanup and recovery.

Yet there's another group...people that you would think would be greatly concerned with the suffering that is hitting our neighbors so very hard. From them? Silence. For at least a little while. Do they not know what to do or say? Are they afraid their response would be wrong? At times we're told silence is golden...that perhaps more comfort is offered by being silent and presence is enough. But when both are missing, that can be a problem too.

There's the thing too that at times sins of omission can be worse than sins of commission. I wonder if this is one of those times. The failure to act is sometimes worse than doing the wrong thing because at least something is being done.