Without vision
the people perish.If you have ever doubted the ministry of leadership, if you wonder what you're doing as a priest or a warden, watching the news the past few days is instructive.
No information. No visible leadership. No imagination or vision communicated to people on the ground, who are actually living in the situation.
As I watch the news, I keep thinking "he had compassion on them, for they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
posted by Emily @ 11:20 AM
3 Comments:
The communication and transportation infrastructure in New Orleans and surrounds seems to be pretty much gone. Few ways to get supplies in, few ways to get people out. No way to get the word across, even if there was a message to deliver, which at this point seems to be in surprisingly short supply.
Rudy Giuliani is often credited with masterful leadership on 9/11. In contrast to New Orleans, he had the advantage of an infrastructure and communications capability that was mostly intact.
The media is focusing on the "lawlessness" in New Orleans. But that's based on our norms - with our internet access, food in the fridge, electricity, etc. I think Maslow is at work there - when you have no food, no water, you'll do darn near anything to get what you need.
Pray. And help. Jane has a nice list.
And now, the true lawlessness sets in. Theft, rape, murder, just because one can get away with it.
*sad*
No one seems to be processing that people go through stages in a trauma--shock, denial, anger, etc.
I've been involved with a family whose home was slightly damanged in a tornado, and she took a lot of anger out on me. Now translate to a hundred thousand people (who may already be distressed, angry or sick before all of this). Bad, bad recipe.
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