God Blesses Chimichangas

After the Deluge:A God With Whom I Am Not Familiar
by TIM WISE

This is an open letter to the man sitting behind me at La Paz today, > in Nashville, at lunchtime, in the Brooks Brothers shirt:>>You don’t know me. But I know you.>>I watched you as you held hands with your tablemates at the >restaurant where we both ate this afternoon. I listened as you >prayed, and thanked God for the food you were about to eat, and for >your own safety, several hundred miles away from the unfolding >catastrophe in New Orleans.>>You blessed your chimichanga in the name of Jesus Christ, and then >proceeded to spend the better part of your meal — and mine, since >I was too near your table to avoid hearing every word — >moralistically scolding the people of that devastated city, heaping >scorn on them for not heeding the warnings to leave before disaster >struck. Then you attacked them — all of them, without >distinction, it seemed — for the behavior of a relative handful: >those who have looted items like guns, or big-screen TVs.>>I heard you ask, amid the din of your colleagues’ “Amens,” why > it was that instead of pitching in to help their fellow Americans, > the people of New Orleans instead — again, all of them, in your >mind — chose to steal and shoot at relief helicopters.>>I watched you wipe salsa from the corners of your mouth, as you >nodded agreement to the statement of one of your friends, her hair >neatly coifed, her makeup flawless, her jewelry sparkling. When you >asked, rhetorically, why it was that people were so much more decent > amid the tragedy of 9/11, as compared to the aftermath of Katrina, > she had offered her response, but only after apologizing for what >she admitted was going to sound harsh.>>“Well,” Buffy explained. “It’s probably because in New >Orleans, it seems to be mostly poor people, and, you know, they just > don’t have the same regard.”>>She then added that police should shoot the looters, and should have > done so from the beginning, so as to send a message to the rest >that theft would not be tolerated. You, who had just thanked Jesus >for your chips and guacamole, said you agreed. They should be shot. > Praise the Lord.>>Your God is one with whom I am not familiar.>>Two thoughts: First, it is a very fortunate thing for you, and >likely for me, that my two young children were with me as I sat >there, choking back fish tacos and my own seething rage, listening >to you pontificate about shit you know nothing about. Have you ever >even been to New Orleans? And no, by that I don’t mean the New >Orleans of your company’s sales conference. I don’t mean >Emeril’s New Orleans, or the New Orleans of Uptown Mardi Gras >parties.>>I mean the New Orleans that is buried as if it were Atlantis, in >places like the lower 9th Ward: 98 percent black, 40 percent poor, >where bodies are floating down the street, flowing with the water as > it seeks its own level. Have you met the people from that New >Orleans? The New Orleans that is dying as I write this, and as you >order another sweet tea?>>I didn’t think so.>>Your God — the one to whom you prayed today, and likely do before >every meal, because this gesture proves what a good Christian you >are — is one who you sincerely believe gives a flying fuck about >your lunch. Your God is one who you seem to believe watches over you > and blesses you, and brings good tidings your way, while >simultaneously letting thousands of people watch their homes be >destroyed, and perhaps 10,000 or more die, many of them in the >streets for lack of water or food.>>Did you ever stop to think just what a rancid asshole such a God >would have to be, such that he would take care of the likes of you, >while letting babies die in their mothers’ arms, and letting old >people die in wheelchairs, at the foot of Canal Street? But no, it >isn’t God who’s the asshole here, Skip (or Brad, or Braxton, or >whatever your name is).>>God doesn’t feed you, and it isn’t God that kept me from turning > around and beating your lily-white privileged ass today either. >God has nothing to do with it. God doesn’t care who wins the >Super Bowl. God doesn’t help anyone win an Academy Award. God >didn’t get you your last raise, or your SUV. And if God is even >half as tired as I am of having to listen to self-righteous >bastards like you blame the victims of this nightmare for their >fate, then you had best eat slowly from this point forward.>>Why didn’t they evacuate like they were told? Are you serious? >There are 100,000 people in that city without cars. Folks who are >too poor to own their own vehicle, and who rely on public >transportation every day. I know this might shock you. They don’t >have a Hummer2, or whatever gas-guzzling piece of crap you probably >own.>>And no, they didn’t just choose not to own a car because the buses > are so gosh-darned efficient and great, as Rush Limbaugh implied >yesterday, and as you likely heard, since you’re the kind of >person who hangs on the every word of such bloviating hacks as >these.>>Why did they loot? Are you serious? People are dying, in the >streets, on live television. Fathers and mothers are watching their >babies’ eyes bulge in their skulls from dehydration, and you are >begrudging them some goddamned candy bars, diapers and water? If >anything, the poor of New Orleans have exercised restraint.>>>Maybe you didn't know it, but the people of that city with whom you >likely identify — the wealthy white folks of Uptown — were >barely touched by this storm. Yeah, I guess God was watching over >them: protecting them, and rewarding them for their faith and >superior morality. If the folks downtown who are waiting >desperately for their government to send help — a government >whose resources have been stretched thin by a war that I’m sure >you support, because you love freedom and democracy — were half >as crazed as you think, they’d march down St. Charles Avenue >right now and burn every mansion in sight. That they aren’t doing >so suggests a decency and compassion for their fellow man and woman >that, sadly, people like you lack.>>Can you even imagine what you would do in their place? Can you >imagine what would happen if it were well-off white folks stranded >like this without buses to get them out, without nourishment, >without hope? Putting aside the absurdity of the imagery — after >all, such folks always have the means to seek safety, or the money >to rebuild, or the political significance to ensure a much speedier >response for their concerns — can you just imagine?>>Can you imagine what would happen if the pampered, overfed corporate > class, which complains about taxes taking a third of their bloated > incomes, had to sit in the hot sun for four, going on five, days? >Without a margarita or hotel swimming pool to comfort them, I mean?>>Oh, and please, I know. I’m stereotyping you. Imagine that. I’ve > assumed, based only on your words, what kind of person you are, >even though I suppose I could be wrong. How does that feel, Biff? >Hurt your feelings? So sorry. But, hey, at least my stereotypes of >you aren’t deadly. They won’t affect your life one bit, unlike >the ones you carry around with you and display within earshot of >people like me, supposing that no one could possibly disagree.>>But I’m not wrong, am I, Chip? I know you. I see people like you >all the time, in airports, in business suits, on their lunch >breaks. People who will take advantage of any opportunity to ratify >and reify their pre-existing prejudices toward the poor, toward >black folks. You see the same three video loops of the same dozen >or so looters on Fox News and you conclude that poor black people >are crazy, immoral, criminal.>>You, or others quite a bit like you, are the ones posting messages >on chat-room boards, calling looters subhuman “vermin,” >“scum” or “cockroaches.” I heard you use the word >“animals” three times today: you and that woman across from >you. What was it you said as you scooped the last bite of black >beans and rice into your eager mouth? Like zoo animals? Yes, I >think that was it.>>Well, Chuck, it’s a free country, and so you certainly have the >right, I suppose, to continue lecturing the poor, in between >checking your Blackberry and dropping the kids off at soccer >practice. If you want to believe that the poor of New Orleans are >immoral and greedy, and unworthy of support at a time like this — >or somehow more in need of your scolding than whatever donation you >might make to a relief fund — so be it. But let’s leave God out >of it, shall we? All of it.>>Your God is one with whom I am not familiar, and I’d prefer to >keep it that way.>