When Kathy and I were leaving New Orleans after Netroots Nation this year, our shuttle driver took us on a route that passed some of the areas most affected during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He told us about his mother, who refused to evacuate. He told her that it was unlikely she would survive, but she was adamant. He didn’t tell us about her reasoning for wanting to stay, but I’ve heard about others in similar situations who took the threats as a test of their faith.
More below.
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Never fear, the shuttle driver finally had enough of his mother’s refusal, and he removed her physically from the residence, taking her with him when he evacuated. Sure enough, her home was completely destroyed in the Katrina flooding, and she would not have survived.
In a first season West Wing episode, ‘Take This Sabbath Day,’ that first aired on 2/09/2000, President Bartlet is challenged by a death penalty case requiring quick, decisive action, if the convicted individual is to be saved. After deliberating most of the episode, Bartlet decides to not intervene. Then his priest (played by Karl Malden) comes to the White House, as the execution is being carried out. And Karl Malden tells him a story of a man by a river.
For those of you preferring to not watch the video, here is the transcript. (From westwingtranscripts)
CHARLIE Mr. President? [beat] Excuse me, Mr. President?
BARTLET Yeah.
CHARLIE Father Cavanaugh.
BARTLET Thank you.
He walks to the door.
FATHER THOMAS CAVANAUGH enters.
BARTLET Tom.
FATHER CAVANAUGH Mr. President. [They hug.]
BARTLET Thank you, Charlie.
Charlie leaves.
BARTLET Thanks for coming all this way down.
FATHER CAVANAUGH It was no trouble. I'm just sorry I couldn't get here until now. BARTLET Yeah, it seems like a wasted trip.
FATHER CAVANAUGH Oh. I can see the Oval Office.
BARTLET This is it.
They walk farther into the room.
FATHER CAVANAUGH Show me around the room.
BARTLET You're looking at the room.
FATHER CAVANAUGH Well, uh, where's the red phone?
BARTLET We don't use the red phone anymore.
FATHER CAVANAUGH Well, how do you talk to the Kremlin?
BARTLET I tell Mrs. Landingham I want to talk to the Kremlin. Would you like a drink?
FATHER CAVANAUGH No. No thanks. [pause] I don't know how to address you. Would you prefer Jed or Mr. President?
BARTLET To be honest, I prefer Mr. President.
FATHER CAVANAUGH That's fine.
BARTLET You understand why, right?
FATHER CAVANAUGH Do I need to know why?
BARTLET It's not ego.
FATHER CAVANAUGH I didn't think it was.
BARTLET There are certain decisions I have to make while I'm in this room. Do I send troops into harm's way? Which fatal disease gets the most research money?
FATHER CAVANAUGH Sure.
BARTLET It's helpful in those situations not to think of yourself as the man but as the office.
FATHER CAVANAUGH Then Mr. President it is.
BARTLET I want you to know that I had a number of people on my staff search for a reason the public would find palatable to commute the sentence. A technicality. Any evidence of racism.
FATHER CAVANAUGH So your staff spent the weekend looking for a way out. BARTLET Yeah.
FATHER CAVANAUGH Like the kid in right field who doesn't want the ball to get hit to him. They sit down.
BARTLET I'm the leader of a democracy, Tom. Seventy-one percent of the people support capital punishment. People have spoken. The courts have spoken.
FATHER CAVANAUGH Did you call the Pope?
BARTLET Yeah.
FATHER CAVANAUGH And how do you do that?
BARTLET [upset] Oh, for crying out loud, Tom. I open my mouth and say, 'Somebody get me the Pope.'
FATHER CAVANAUGH No, I'm sorry, Mr. President, but I was thinking... You're just this kid from my parish and now you're calling the Pope.
BARTLET Anyway. I looked for a way out, I really did.
FATHER CAVANAUGH ''Vengeance is mine,' sayeth the Lord.' You know what that means? God is the only one who gets to kill people.
BARTLET I know.
FATHER CAVANAUGH That was your way out.
BARTLET I know. FATHER CAVANAUGH Did you pray?
BARTLET I did, Tom. I know it's hard to believe, but I prayed for wisdom.
FATHER CAVANAUGH And none came?
BARTLET [shakes his head] It never has. And I'm a little pissed off about that. \
He looks at his watch, which says it's a few seconds before midnight. It hits him hard.
BARTLET [dead serious] I'm not kidding.
FATHER CAVANAUGH You know, you remind me of the man that lived by the river. He heard a radio report that the river was going to rush up and flood the town. And that all the residents should evacuate their homes. But the man said, 'I'm religious. I pray. God loves me. God will save me.' The waters rose up. A guy in a row boat came along and he shouted, 'Hey, hey you! You in there. The town is flooding. Let me take you to safety.' But the man shouted back, 'I'm religious. I pray. God loves me. God will save me.' A helicopter was hovering overhead. And a guy with a megaphone shouted, 'Hey you, you down there. The town is flooding. Let me drop this ladder and I'll take you to safety.' But the man shouted back that he was religious, that he prayed, that God loved him and that God will take him to safety. Well... the man drowned. And standing at the gates of St. Peter, he demanded an audience with God. 'Lord,' he said, 'I'm a religious man, I pray. I thought you loved me. Why did this happen?' God said, 'I sent you a radio report, a helicopter, and a guy in a rowboat. What the hell are you doing here?'
He pauses. Bartlet looks very upset.
FATHER CAVANAUGH He sent you a priest, a rabbi, and a Quaker, Mr. President. Not to mention his son, Jesus Christ. What do you want from him?
There is a knock on the door.
C.J. Excuse me.
C.J. comes in, hands Bartlet a note, and leaves. Bartlet reads the note, and then crumples it up as he goes to lean on the desk. He looks exceedingly troubled.
FATHER CAVANAUGH Jed. Would you like me to hear your confession?
BARTLET Yes, please.
Father Cavanaugh pulls out his stole and puts it on. The President kneels beside him, over the Presidential seal. He performs the sign of the cross.
BARTLET Bless me, Father, for I have sinned...
I was thinking about this context in light of so many things happening in today’s world. People taking ‘religious freedom stands’ on everything under the sun. People refusing to allow their children to be vaccinated for ‘religious’ reasons. People demonizing science because they’ve been told by Faux News that it’s a threat to their faith. You know a gazillion other examples.
Our political adversaries encourage and reinforce these conflicts, because it drives wedges between people, because they perceive the greatest potential political advantage in validating these kinds of beliefs and behavior. And it strikes me that much of it is little more than a loyalty oath strategy. If you do this, you have expressed your loyalty in this context or that.
When I was studying in what was then West Germany, we heard about the oath that Germans took in the time of the Third Reich. It wasn’t an oath to a Constitution or a set of principles, it was an oath to Hitler himself. It was called the Hitler Oath. (In German, Der Führereid, or Eid auf den Führer.)
Who can you think of today who covets that kind of .. loyalty, and blind commitment? We think of it as a fascist element, and it is. But it isn’t original, in this country, to this execrable administration. Within the ‘modern day Republican Party,’ it was found in Dubya’s 2004 presidential campaign. Campaign rally attendees were required to take an oath of endorsement to the campaign to be granted admission to the rally. Before researching for this diary, I did not know that.
Fascist.
Much of what we see today is of this nature. A fascinating British psychologist, named Henri Tajfel, devoted his career to research about it. Among his insights was, a major way in which people ‘express’ or demonstrate loyalty to an in-group is by expressing hostility to their out-group.
Whites of this ilk express hostility toward people of color as a demonstration of their loyalty to the in-group. ‘Americans’ like this express hostility to ‘non-Americans’ to show and prove their loyalty to their in-group. Males express hostility toward females to show their bogus, imagined, self-deluded gender ascendency, to show their loyalty to their gender, small-minded and vicious though it be. ‘Christians’ express hostility toward non-Christians to show loyalty to their in-group. There are countless examples.
Absolutely it is discriminatory. It seems to me to be kind of a supra-racism, bigger than racism, but containing it, bigger than misogyny, but including it. Bigger than gender differences, but encompassing those.
Some will drown rather than allowing themselves to be taken to safety. Maybe they deserve it, maybe they don't. But, please remember, their drowning isn't a victory. For us or for anyone.
Lest you think it is purely a conservative phenomenon, it isn’t. We do it relative to conservatives, too. Hard to avoid, it is wired into us, to a degree.
Of course, we are sentient beings. We can examine things like in-group loyalty and out-group hostility and make choices that over-ride deep truths. For those willing to think, to contemplate what is happening.
As Marshall McLuhan said:
There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.
But our adversaries turn that contemplation into a loyalty oath challenge, also. They don’t want people to contemplate, they want them to react. They want them to consider ANY and EVERY progressive truth, progressive morality initiative as a direct challenge to their faith. To inoculate them against contemplation, open-mindedness, generosity toward others. They want them to express hostility, instead. And believe in hostility, and hatred. And that vaccinating their children is a failure. And that believing in global warming is a failure, and a betrayal of their every in-group. One of the biggest reasons our fight is so hard.
Thanks for considering! On to tonight’s comments! Formatted by brillig!
(Private note to DanC: If you stop in tonight, please say hi.)
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From brillig:
From Hunter’s Trump blasts GM over plant closures, tells them to 'get a car that is selling well' comes this comment worthy of its own diary from Conscience Crisis.
Highlighted by Arfeeto:
This comment by Ernest T Bass is the most interesting comment I’ve read all day. From Walter Einenkel’s The world's highest glaciers on top of Mount Everest are melting because of climate change.
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