Volume 5, Issue 35
Like Katrina, it is a perfect storm, catching everyone off guard. The situation was so unpredictable that the decision to evacuate was by no means obvious. No one is ultimately to blame. There will be reviews for future emergency preparedness, but what is saving the residents of Houston is the absolute brotherly love of the local citizens for each other in their time of tragedy. Everyone is bringing what they can to meet the crisis. No questions are asked. If you are in need, all are equal in the sharing of facilities and resources. No one is holding back in reserve for themselves.
Is there minor looting? Yes. There will always be those who think of themselves first. But such selfishness pales in comparison to the heroic efforts of the first responders and the everyday citizen reaching out to those nearest to them.
Hurricane Harvey is a natural disaster. But the response by the people of Houston, the State of Texas, and America, in general, has been beyond exemplary, it is a testament to the foundation of human nature. This should be instructive to our politicians in Washington, DC.
Observing the climate in our nation’s capital, one would come to the conclusion that we are hopelessly divided on irreconcilable differences that can only be cured by the defeat or censorship of one cultural mindset over another. The response by the general population of Houston to the current catastrophe tells us otherwise. What is lacking in Washington is leadership – leadership that has faith in the outcome of the natural bonds of human fairness applied to the current human need.
Pollyanna-ish? How do we know? We’ve never tried it before.
Not one leader from the establishment right or the establishment left, in their pronouncements of their national creed, has articulated the critical needs to be met by those of the constituency of the opposing intellect. No vision is being cast by such leaders which emotionally manifests inclusiveness in the hearts of all citizens.
The Founding Fathers accomplished inclusive vision first through The Federalist Papers, and then in drafting the Constitution to imbibe into the minds of the people that we are inextricably connected to each other for survival. And, in fairness personified by the due process of law and equal access to opportunity and resources lies the strategic structure for human fulfillment.
Abraham Lincoln defended this inclusive vision in his second inaugural address: “It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces…” Be that as it may, and not to judge, we must be “devoted altogether to saving the Union.” In other words, the principles of fairness and inclusiveness must be protected for the generations.
Congress leaving Washington, DC for the August recess without legislatively correcting the flawed structure of health care is, at best, inadequate, and at worst, reprehensible. All agree, from the political right to the political left, that the current health care system is unsustainable. This is a given fact. The right may not like the left’s solution, and the left may not like the right’s solution, but degradation of the system to the point of jeopardizing services, or total collapse, is unacceptable. Perhaps we should ask the people of Houston how to meet this crisis.
Some say that only in crisis can the answers be found, that tragedy cannot be averted by political compromise. Catastrophe can only be confronted when the people are presented with the resulting reality. Abraham Lincoln also lamented in his second inaugural address that, despite all efforts of political accommodation, “the war came.” Europe, in the years leading up to World War II, nurtured the denial that Hitler would unleash the destructive hell of World War II. And the war came.
Why is it that, in the face of common sense, war must come for the principles of fairness and inclusiveness to be enforced against the forces of prejudice, bigotry, and self-serving power? In courtesy to the argument, throughout history, reconciliation of cultural issues was generally achieved after the tragedy was realized, and political or military war was the instrument determining the outcome of the debate. The leaders of the winning coalition then were the architects of the surviving system. The question, therefore, remains whether tragedy can be averted through principled leadership. Yet when leaders abdicate their obligation to unite us through principle, based on the hopelessness that no solution can be reached without the manifestation of conflict, they in fact subordinate their God-given authority to the competing forces of incarnate evil.
Why is it that leadership tends to default to the circumstances at hand and, in so doing, delegates to society, in general, the crafting of the blueprint for answers? From Hurricane Harvey to the Boston Marathon terrorist attack to Hurricane Katrina to the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building terrorist bombing, the true nature of the American citizen has emerged, demonstrating heroic, self-sacrificing commitment to fellow citizens. The human spirit of fairness and inclusiveness is basic to the American spirit. Perhaps leaders should have more faith in the American character and offer the people the vision reflective of their true nature. They may find that they have less to fear of trusting the people than they currently believe. By stepping outside of their partisan and political identity into the realm of the true American human spirit, they follow in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers.
In such principled leadership, we may find in the appeal a different answer to the question – why is the human spirit realized only in disaster and not in life?
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?