Pondering Stuff

Those two words in the title don't seem to go together to me. "Pondering" sounds... oh... sort of weighty and important, and "Stuff" sounds like... just stuff. Still, that's the way the last few days have gone for me... pondering stuff.

Jarrod and I had a conversation early in the week about the role racism played in the New Orleans fiasco. Larry James's blog has an ongoing discussion about helping the urban poor, and recent posts include lively exchanges about racism and New Orleans.

When I was in high school and college in the 60s and 70s, racism was easy to identify... it was mean... it was deliberate... it was obvious... as a student and young teacher, I felt like I had to fight it like a crusader. I guess I am in that class of "social liberals" for whom racism was a personal attitude... a debate to win... perhaps something to march against. If I didn't foster racism in my heart and in my children, then I could change my world.

Today, racism seems to be much more insidious... perhaps it was back then too, but the mean-spirited public version just sort of masked endemic racism. Anyway, the more I think about it, the more I believe that racism has sort of merged with classism... and basically the poor are the ones getting the short end of the stick in many arenas in our culture. It's tough to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps when you're barefooted, and that's where many poor in our culture are. And the truth is that a great percentage of our poor are black or hispanic.

Is it simple? No... it was a black mayor who neglected to plan for transportation for those who owned no cars and had no way to leave during an evacuation. It was a black police chief who enforced the order. And there was no excuse for leaving all those folks at the Super Dome and Convention Center with no food and no water. Yet, there is also no excuse... I repeat... no excuse for rapes and other violence that happened there, nor for the sniper shots taken at rescue workers and firemen the last couple of days. Is the problem simple? No. Will a solution be simple? No. Yet, deep down I am still convinced that the best way to erase the sin of racism from our culture is to do it one heart at a time... with the gospel of Jesus.

It's been really cool hearing and reading about all the ways different groups and individuals are helping with Katrina relief. Kids with lemonade stands... a youth group taking pledges during a 30 hour fast... collecting goods and money to send... inviting people into homes and churches... and on and on. Sugar Grove, the church where Virginia and I were for 13.5 years, is partnering with other churches and agencies SW Houston and Sugar Land to help thousands of folks who were able to leave during the evacuation and are now stuck in hotels with no home to return to, no jobs, and credit cards at their limits. This link tells some of what they are doing. http://www.sugargrove.org/hurricanerelief.htm. This is one of the churches to which Eastside will send some of the money we collect on the 18th.

This week has certainly been a week for thinking things over... for pondering stuff.