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I urge us to cancel General Convention 2006, have the House of Bishops elect the new Presiding Bishop at their meeting next spring, have the deputies confirm the election by a mail ballot, and give to the victims of Katrina who have no insurance all the money we would spend going to the Convention. What a witness we would make for God's priorities! Any contracts we're stuck with for hotels could be honored by providing those spaces for the poor, who will apparently need it for a long time. God asks us always to expect a rainbow. Did any with transportation ask the poor to join them in the exodus before Katrina hit, giving up space used for things to make room for other human beings most at risk? Please share the specifics if you know them. We might bring some of the National Guard home to guard the nation rather than Iraq. Is there a way that we could encourage this? We might ask the various factions of the Iraqis to volunteer to work side by side in helping with the evacuation and recovery efforts on our Gulf Coast. It would be amazing to watch some of their antipathy for each other and for us break down in working together to help someone else. Perhaps the Israelis who receive $11 million per day from the United States government would be willing to join these others in such a humanitarian effort. Our Presiding Bishop and other religious leaders might collaborate to persuade Ted Turner and Bill Gates and Howard Ahmanson.... to fund the mobilization. We might ask Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro to help with the evacuation of our poor. Even before Katrina hit, Chavez offered to help feed our poor, and Castro has offered to help with their education. We don't need to be completely self-reliant; that's why God has given us one another. I feel sure that thousands in Africa and the global South would be glad to help us recover if we could find the way to bring them here. The posture of self-reliance and being number one has not served us well. The proud and powerful self-reliant individualist is what prompted many of the rich to leave the poor to die while the rich fled. Let's put in charge those who genuinely care about people. Speaking of looting, please assure me that this report is not true, sent by a friend without a direct link for me to check it out: "In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, PRESIDENT BUSH PROPOSED SPENDING LESS THAN 20 PERCENT OF WHAT THE CORPS SAID WAS NEEDED FOR LAKE PONCHARTRAIN [emphasis my friend's], according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans City Business." Surely our president did not ask for those cut-backs?! And why are the oil dealers allowed to gouge us for more profits in the time of crisis. Is it not time to freeze oil prices, and if the corporate executives continue to be bad citizens, federalize the oil industry? Do we still have "government of the people, by the people, and for the people," or "government of the people, by the rich and for the rich?" Surely there are many other ways that can reveal the rainbow after all this. Please share your own. L. Louie Crew, Chair of Newark Deputation. Member of Executive Council http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/rel.html Anglican Pages
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