Anger about Arguing

I'm getting tired of the trend that the country has been heading into. Hurricane Katrina was just a catalyst of what I have been seeing over the last couple of years.

When I had my satellite TV service I would watch The Daily Show with John Stewert. Well, I liked his appearance on CNN's now defunct Crossfire, one of the many programs that to me is the heart of the problem. John put his finger on the problem: There is no discussion of ideas, just screaming and yelling about why they are right and the other's are wrong.
What does this have to do with now? Plenty. While I agree that the Feds were slow, but so was the state and local agencies (I have read a couple of time lines and they pretty much all agree on when things happened). So now we have Rep. Nancy Pelosi yelling and screaming about blame. And while he hasn't done it recently, Sen. Rick Santorum can be just as bad. My problem is that at this point in time is not the time for blame. This is the time of healing and relief. There will be a time to find out what went wrong and who is responsible.

I'm already forming my opinions on who should be held accountable, and they are on both sides of the spectrum, but now is not the time for them to come to light. All of the political grandstanding is nothing short of selfishness and self agrandizement. If politicians want to be reelected, they need to do, not talk.

Things are now flowing and things are beginning to turn around. As I watch the NGO's like UMCOR and OBI I see what God was after when Jesus said, "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” If you look at the Ten Commandments, this is what God was after.

When I go on mission trips I think the same thing. So in this time of division, we need to work on the second part of loving our neighbors, because this derision that is being done gets nothing done, but distract us from what is important.


UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention was a pointer to a previous post of mine.

There were rabbis at that time that debated the question. The one's in power at the time said that you should do no work. However, Jesus turned it around. He asked the question, is it better to to do good or evil on the Sabbath? When the Pharisees wouldn't answer Jesus got mad, and then turned to the man and healed him.

To me this arguing about who is to blame for the slow reaction is the wrong question now. The right question is, how are you going to heal people left hurting in the wake of Katrina. The time to find out what went wrong will be answered at another time when the healing has been done.