(2005) In the aftermath of the terrible tragedy brought upon the Gulf Coast and New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, I can't believe what my ears are hearing and what my eyes are seeing.
Let the 2005 US Blame Games begin.
It's hard to believe, but what seemed like just hours after the single, largest natural disaster in American history took place, screams of blame and racism began being shouted over the airwaves of America's news channels. Literally.
First, there was the New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin, saying on a radio show the next day, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their as%#s moving to New Orleans!"
Facts are, he sent people to the Superdome with no plans of provisions. No excuse my friend. None. The Astrodome in the Houston area has been prepared for years for a major hurricane by having cots, food and emergency services ready and waiting. Why? Galveston is only 20 minutes away from the Gulf of Mexico. I know, I lived there myself for 12 years. Yet, the Mayor of an on-the-water, below sea-level major city didn't even bother to plan ahead by having one cot, one bottle of water, one MRE, one bus, or one generator ready! He even refused to use all of the hundreds of available school buses to get people out, stating he would rather have greyhounds. Making matters worse, he then allowed tourists to leave from exclusive, pricy hotels before his own people, allowing them to cut to the front of the line at the Superdome. I don't need to point a finger, because all of his are pointing right back at him.
Then there was the Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a democrat by the way, who began rallying blame on President Bush and FEMA for not helping quickly enough. Fact is all governors and mayors are in possession of the federal rules on evacuations involving a major disaster. The rules book is issued by FEMA – the Federal Emergency Management Act. FEMA responds after a disaster, not before. Gov. Blanco refused the urging of President Bush to enact an all out evacuation of the area, stating she wanted another 24 hours to think about it. It was in her mind an issue of authority and power. She was wrong. Dead wrong.
Then New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass has been ranting and raving about the poor response to the area and how decimated things are. Surely they are, but when hundreds of your own staff disobey your orders, have been seen looting, or have walked off the job altogether it makes one question your leadership ability to begin with.
But nothing is worse than the politicizing of this horrible event by liberal democrats. It really makes me sick at my stomach. Rather than focusing on helping those who are hurting and without anything, these gutless people have decided it's best to use this catastrophe for their own personal gain.
You've got Hilary Clinton rushing to the area to make her face known. Al Sharpton running to defend "his people's" rights to live in filth and disease, and the fake Reverend Jesse Jackson claiming this entire event, maybe even the Hurricane itself, was an act of 1950s civil unrest and racism. Crazy stuff. Just stupid.
I won't even bother mentioning the tons of celebrities who have come out of the woodwork, shown up for a 30 minute volunteer session of handing out water, only then to be called heroes. What a joke. Go back to Hollywood please and let those who really care help these hurting people.
The real heroes are the people of the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and dozens of other ministries and organizations who have given their time and money everyday to these people.
It's a sad, sad time. People have been separated from their own children. Others have already died in their own homes. Many others will. Pets have been left to drown, starve and die.
Blame can be placed everywhere and some day many questions have to be answered. Why did people stay when a category 5 hurricane, with winds of 200mph, was staring them in the face? Why did it take so long to get people out of the area? Why have people turned this into an opportunity to further political aspirations? Why are people blaming the President or FEMA for a response to a disaster to the magnitude that has have never occurred before? Why was New Orleans, of all cities, not fully prepared and ready for this? Why were studies and warnings ignored for over 30 years since Hurricane Camille? Why? Why? Why?
But this is not a time for whying or whining. This is time to give, love and pray.
People need our money, our clothes, our support, shelter and direction. Their lives were taken from them and nothing, if anything, is coming back for a long, long time.
New Orleans will never be the same. Neither will the rest of us. People of all colors and all races are feeling this one in the gut. It hurts and it's sad.
Let's stop the Blame Games of 2005. No one's a winner here.
"Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need." Acts 2:44-46
© 2005, J. Brady
"I say it as I see it and I make no bones about it."
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Only Then Will You Know...
(2005) How wrong abortion is. Not until you have some of your own and witness the entire birthing process. Only then will you know.
A few weeks ago my wife and I were blessed to watch our twin girls, Chloe and Sidney, join the world at Arlington Memorial Hospital. Thanks to the careful oversight of our doctor and the recommendation of a specialist we were able to avoid some possible horrible outcomes. Our twins had just begun "twin to twin transfusion", where one begins taking all of the resources from the other, when they both urgently suggested we get to the hospital and get the girls out a few days later. Thank God they did. Sidney was taking most of the food and blood, leaving Chloe much smaller and wanting. The possibilities could have been death for both of them, if things had gone on much further.
At 8:58am on Sunday morning the 21st of August, I was able to witness first hand the C-section birth of my beautiful little ones. Chloe was first, followed seconds later by her "bigger" yet younger sister, Sidney. Our doctor was gracious enough to allow me to video tape the entire process. I've watched it over and over, and still well up with tears.
The process of life is amazing. It is the strongest and only evidence we need of God's hand on us and our world. How in the world can anyone with a brain think this all began with a "big bang" millions of years ago? Or, how can anyone discount a providential hand in the process of pregnancy, when each week literally thousands of things must happen just right or the baby will not survive? I will never get it and until I had my own, it never really sunk in. Now it has.
Everyday over 3800 abortions are performed each day in the United States, according to the Agape Press. That's over 1.37 million a year in America alone!
Have we become immune to the social argument of abortion over the last 30+ years since Roe vs. Wade in 1973? Are you tired of hearing about it? Tired of being told who's right it is? Tired of being asked to pray about it or support various life sustaining organizations? Tired of the politicizing of it all?
If you're like me, I have to admit, many times it goes in one ear and out the other. Yet, isn't it sad that I can't even watch a news story about an abandoned or abused dog or pet without getting more sad and angry than ever? I bet you can relate. Anyone with a beating heart should. Yet, when it comes to the horribly painful process a baby goes through during an abortion, we shrug our shoulders and say, "Well, it's about politics" or "I don't want to tell someone what to do" or "Who am I to judge?".
Wrong answer.
It is time we get serious about these killings that happen in America. Nothing is more tragic and nothing is more painful in the eyes of God than seeing a little one be ripped apart by suction tubes, or be euthanized as they lay in the womb. Don't be fooled. An abortion is painful. Babies scream and are literally torn to pieces without anything to deminish the pain. We have been fooled by Satan himself into believing a fetus isn't a human or a fetus has no idea what is happening to them.
It hurts the baby, it hurts God and it should hurt us.
I challenge you to find a little one to hold sometime soon. Listen to the baby grunt, whimper and giggle. Look at them as they stare holes in your eyes. Kiss them when the smile. Pat them when the cry. Let God remind you of how precious life really is. Let Him remind yourself that the only reason you're alive is because you're own mother opted to keep you, rather than have you torn out.
If you are a Christian and somehow think you can support abortion, you're wrong. Do we defend pedophiles by claiming he has a right to do what he does? That would be insane. Yet, we justify the actions of abortions by doing just that!
One final point. Let me introduce you to Susan Anne Catherine Torres. She was born just a few weeks before my own. Her story is sad yet powerfully uplifting. I first heard about her on a flight to Jacksonville, when she was just a few weeks old in her mother's belly.
See, her mother was technically dead as a result of a terrible cancer. Her body functions were kept going in order for baby Susan to grow. She needed to get to at least 24 weeks, even to have a shot, and she made it. Born at 26 weeks, little Susan Anne now has a decent chance of living a mircale life. Her mother literally died giving her baby a chance to live. If only more would do the same. (http://www.susantorresfund.org for the story)
God loves every baby, and none more than his own. But even Jesus was allowed the chance to live. Thank God He wasn't born in today's world and to a modern day "Mary"
Abortion kills and that's that.
Now you know.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." Psalm 139:12-14
© 2005, J. Brady
"I say it as I see it and I make no bones about it."
A few weeks ago my wife and I were blessed to watch our twin girls, Chloe and Sidney, join the world at Arlington Memorial Hospital. Thanks to the careful oversight of our doctor and the recommendation of a specialist we were able to avoid some possible horrible outcomes. Our twins had just begun "twin to twin transfusion", where one begins taking all of the resources from the other, when they both urgently suggested we get to the hospital and get the girls out a few days later. Thank God they did. Sidney was taking most of the food and blood, leaving Chloe much smaller and wanting. The possibilities could have been death for both of them, if things had gone on much further.
At 8:58am on Sunday morning the 21st of August, I was able to witness first hand the C-section birth of my beautiful little ones. Chloe was first, followed seconds later by her "bigger" yet younger sister, Sidney. Our doctor was gracious enough to allow me to video tape the entire process. I've watched it over and over, and still well up with tears.
The process of life is amazing. It is the strongest and only evidence we need of God's hand on us and our world. How in the world can anyone with a brain think this all began with a "big bang" millions of years ago? Or, how can anyone discount a providential hand in the process of pregnancy, when each week literally thousands of things must happen just right or the baby will not survive? I will never get it and until I had my own, it never really sunk in. Now it has.
Everyday over 3800 abortions are performed each day in the United States, according to the Agape Press. That's over 1.37 million a year in America alone!
Have we become immune to the social argument of abortion over the last 30+ years since Roe vs. Wade in 1973? Are you tired of hearing about it? Tired of being told who's right it is? Tired of being asked to pray about it or support various life sustaining organizations? Tired of the politicizing of it all?
If you're like me, I have to admit, many times it goes in one ear and out the other. Yet, isn't it sad that I can't even watch a news story about an abandoned or abused dog or pet without getting more sad and angry than ever? I bet you can relate. Anyone with a beating heart should. Yet, when it comes to the horribly painful process a baby goes through during an abortion, we shrug our shoulders and say, "Well, it's about politics" or "I don't want to tell someone what to do" or "Who am I to judge?".
Wrong answer.
It is time we get serious about these killings that happen in America. Nothing is more tragic and nothing is more painful in the eyes of God than seeing a little one be ripped apart by suction tubes, or be euthanized as they lay in the womb. Don't be fooled. An abortion is painful. Babies scream and are literally torn to pieces without anything to deminish the pain. We have been fooled by Satan himself into believing a fetus isn't a human or a fetus has no idea what is happening to them.
It hurts the baby, it hurts God and it should hurt us.
I challenge you to find a little one to hold sometime soon. Listen to the baby grunt, whimper and giggle. Look at them as they stare holes in your eyes. Kiss them when the smile. Pat them when the cry. Let God remind you of how precious life really is. Let Him remind yourself that the only reason you're alive is because you're own mother opted to keep you, rather than have you torn out.
If you are a Christian and somehow think you can support abortion, you're wrong. Do we defend pedophiles by claiming he has a right to do what he does? That would be insane. Yet, we justify the actions of abortions by doing just that!
One final point. Let me introduce you to Susan Anne Catherine Torres. She was born just a few weeks before my own. Her story is sad yet powerfully uplifting. I first heard about her on a flight to Jacksonville, when she was just a few weeks old in her mother's belly.
See, her mother was technically dead as a result of a terrible cancer. Her body functions were kept going in order for baby Susan to grow. She needed to get to at least 24 weeks, even to have a shot, and she made it. Born at 26 weeks, little Susan Anne now has a decent chance of living a mircale life. Her mother literally died giving her baby a chance to live. If only more would do the same. (http://www.susantorresfund.org for the story)
God loves every baby, and none more than his own. But even Jesus was allowed the chance to live. Thank God He wasn't born in today's world and to a modern day "Mary"
Abortion kills and that's that.
Now you know.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." Psalm 139:12-14
© 2005, J. Brady
"I say it as I see it and I make no bones about it."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)