the basic message #E364
9/9/05
In a few days, Hurricane Katrina will mark its 2 week anniversary of making landfall in South Louisiana. I have developed the bad habit of having nightmares about the storm, and as I write this, it's about 3 AM, and I'm unable to return to sleep. I was dreaming about participating in the execution of a group of men, and it was a particularly disturbing dream. The mind is a complicated piece of machinery, and I'm told we process left over data from our waking hours in our dreams. I know who we were executing, and I know why.
Anyone who has read the basic message for any length of time will know that I've been opposed to the death penalty for many years. I've maintained steadfastly that only God should be able to take a life, and that when God says, "Vengeance is mine", life and death are exactly what he's referring to. In my dream, I see myself standing in a line of about 10 men, and there are about 3 or 4 lines. Each man stands about 4 feet apart, in a sort of grid configuration. We are linked with what I recognize to be nylon lifting straps, the type we use in our shop to lift equipment with a chain hoist or crane. I suppose this represents some sort of cable to carry the current, though I don't know why the straps are used since they can't carry current. At any rate, in these lines are those who will be executed and those who will act as switches, to allow the current to flow. In other words, some of us will hold the straps together to allow the current to flow to execute some men further down the line from us. Strangely, the man to my right is a very good friend of mine who's also opposed to capital punishment, and he is instructing me on how he and I are to connect the straps to kill the man to our right. This pretty much completes the setting of the stage of what we were doing, and I'll also tell you we were successful in our efforts- the man was electrocuted.
After I awoke from this nightmare, I began to consider why I dreamed this, and the answer was simple. After watching yet another news report on Hurricane Katrina, I had a conversation with my wife about a story I heard. The reporter was interviewing a doctor who had worked the New Orleans Convention Center, and the doctor recalled situations which he said happened over several nights. The man appeared to be a solid, logical man, and I don't doubt the validity of his story. I particularly loathe people who hear a rumor and go out repeating, or even worse, embellishing the rumor, so I did some checking on the internet regarding the story. Michelle Malkin's site questioned the story, but her doubt revolved around an individual who may have been fabricated by the media. I saw the doctor on WWL TV, a New Orleans station now operating out of Baton Rouge. WWL, in my opinion, is a respected news organization, and I believe the story. Back to the doctor's recollection of events:
He stated that for several nights, a group of criminals would "select" victims and basically drag those people off to what he called the "catacombs" for rape, and in some cases, murder. He said the family of the victims would later roll the body up in a sheet and put them on the second floor of the Convention Center. As this doctor, still in his "scrubs" was telling this story, he had a strange, distant look in his eyes, like a man recalling battlefield horrors. He said the "good people" would crowd as closely to the exterior doors on the lower floor as possible, trying to avoid being a target for the criminals. The doctor stated that a 7 year-old girl had her throat slit. This leads me to the foundation for my dream. When I told my wife about the interview, and I made this comment: "I'm still against the death penalty, but if anyone should get it, it should be the men who killed that little girl." I suppose my role in executing the man in my dream indicates I reluctantly approved of the execution, but I'm not sure about that.
I realize this is a long column this week, but I must try to process my thoughts on paper to get some sort of mental relief from this madness. My friends and family have been working to help out at the storm victim shelters and other relief programs this week, and some of the stories I'm hearing in our area concern me. Some local residents are complaining about the victims "disturbing our way of life" with crime and increased traffic. I don't doubt that our crime level has increased and I know without a doubt our traffic is jam-packed, but let's step away from these "facts" for a moment. Let's just hypothetically consider a group of 50 "typical" evacuees that may be staying in local shelters. Out of those 50, how many are out committing crimes? I'd guess it may be 2 or 3. Out of the remaining 47, perhaps 15 to 20 are lazy bums that are simply here to get free housing and food. I think that number is too high, but I use it only to pacify the hard-hearted among you. So basically, about half the people are good, honest people who simply need our help. Quite frankly, as much as I detest being used by bad people, I must forego my hurt feelings to make sure the remaining 27 out of the 50 are properly cared for. In volunteering at a shelter last weekend, I found it strange that we seldom saw any of the evacuees. After hearing some of the stories coming out of New Orleans, I can begin to understand why- they really need time to process all that has happened to them in the past week or so. We "helpful" people sometimes want the full story from victims, but I submit to you here that we have no right to even assume the victims need to inform us of every detail of their plight. If you feel like hearing their story is your "payment" for helping them, please go volunteer somewhere else.
Whether the story about the little 7 year-old girl is true, I don't know, but what I do know is this: many, if not most, of the survivors of Katrina have deep emotional scars that really need to be healed through Christian love. God has given the Christian community a wonderful opportunity to practice what we've been learning in Sunday School since we were children. If I've learned one thing is life, it's this: Never say, "That will never happen to me", because you very likely are tempting God to allow that fate to become yours. Perhaps we'll never take a direct hit from a category 4 hurricane, but there are other catastrophes which can occur. I fully realize we don't live in a "tit for tat" world centered on justice, but I just hope in showing mercy to others, I shall someday have mercy shown to me.