This is not ok.

Day in and day out, Katrina or no Katrina, New Orleans is America’s most dangerous city. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. White and black residents, rich and poor, of good neighborhoods and bad, are afraid to go out at night beyond the clear boundaries of well-patrolled areas like the heart of the French Quarter—and night means 6:00 pm, not 2:00 am. Everyone in New Orleans knows someone who has been violently mugged—and everyone knows someone who knows someone who has been violently killed.

This article was printed in 2005, but the picture since hasn't gotten any prettier. The violent crime rate this year is up 107% compared to the same time last year.

And for the record, I'm from New Orleans and I know someone who knows someone who has been violently killed. Not only that, but I know someone who was murdered (by her boyfriend), and I once saw a man who had been shot (executed? nothing was stolen...) lying in the street in a pool of his own blood on my way home from work.

The very sad truth of this violence is, though, that, although it is bad for all of us, it is worst of all if you are poor and black. And if you are a young man.

We can't turn our eyes away, and think that someone else will take care of this, because they won't. It's for all of us to figure out how to change this world, how to be a positive element. The world is hungry and thirsty.

Matthew 25:31-46 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

The Sheep and the Goats

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of
these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

NPR this morning...

Two things jumped out at me listening to NPR as I got ready this morning ---

The first was a horrible crime that happened in Brazil recently. The blurb at NPR says that this child's "gruesome death [...] emphasizes the daily reality of violent crime in Rio de Janeiro." The boy, 6 years old, was strapped into the backseat of his parents' car, when they were carjacked by two gun-toting teenagers. They weren't able to quite get him out of his seatbelt when the carjackers drove off, dragging his little body down the street. By the time they stopped the car and ran away, he was of course already dead. It's created an outcry in Brazil, and only horror here. But what haunted me most was the comment by the author Paulo Coelho, who said that we are all victims, but also all the murderers. We are all at fault when part of our society is so horribly brutalized as to commit such a crime.

The other commenters pointed out that a major part of the problem in Brazil is that so few of the violent crimes (2%) are punished, so the criminals feel they can act with impunity.

My Mom and I were discussing the high crime rate in New Orleans yesterday. It's much worse now than before Katrina. It's easy to sit in the safety of a house in the suburbs, thinking "oh, how horrible for those poor people"... but like Coelho said, we are also victims and perpetrators. To use a tired cliche, if we're not part of the solution, we're part of the problem. I don't know what can be done to make the lives of children born in poverty materially better, so that they don't grow up in a dangerous and brutal environment, but I think we all need to be thinking about it and coming up with solutions, because this can't go on. Although we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world, our crime rate (and a few other less than excellent statistics, such as the fact that we still have capitol punishment) -- put us in an ugly neighborhood: we are right down there with Brazil and the Middle East and some of the countries in Africa. Not in every neighborhood or city in our country, to be sure, but having one child grow up with drive-by shootings and goodness knows what else is one too many in a country this wealthy. It's not ok.

The reason Mom and I got into the discussion is because she mentioned the situation with the projects in New Orleans. There are several families who want to move back. The buildings themselves were not flooded or damaged. But the city doesn't want to let them move in. They would rather raze the buildings, and then create low-income housing dispersed throughout the city, so that there is not such a concentration of low-income families (and crime). Mom had a great idea: why not allow the families to move back into the buildings, which are good, sturdy buildings. But instead of just putting them back into the same situation, help them refurbish their apartments and make them nice. Each family could then have the opportunity to purchase their apartment, so that they would someday have something of their own. In this way, they would feel a sense of pride and a sense of ownership. The projects would not become as run-down, and the families, the good people who live there, would be able to keep the bad element out, with the help of us and the authorities. What do you think? I'd welcome any ideas for ways to improve not only New Orleans, but our other urban centers, and make our cities better places for all children, not only those with the good fortune to have parents with a decent job.

The other series I've been listening to on NPR, is entitled "God, Darwin and Dixie" -- today's installment had to do with the labels they've placed in the beginning of all science books in Alabama stating that Evolution is "just" a theory. Nevermind the fact that this demonstrates that the people (proponents of Intelligent Design) using that rhetoric are willfully disguising the fact that the term "theory" when used by scientists is much stronger than its everyday usage. A scientific theory is something that has been put to the test by a number of scientists (in this case for over 100 years), and which they have not found to be wrong. This doesn't mean it won't ever be shown to perhaps be mistaken, when we have learned more, but until then, it's the best explanation for all of the phenomena we see. Now I'm a Christian and I believe that God created the earth and all that is in it ... the fact that scientists have discovered that things evolve, that we may have evolved, does not bother me in the least. A god who is powerful and intelligent enough to say "Let there be light" and poof, there was light, is certainly capable of coming up with a system as intricate as evolution. Imagine the foresight involved.

Anyway, that's enough for today. I hope you have a wonderful one!!!