BEYOND THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS

After hubris, only suffering and debris remain.

The Texas floods of July 4, 2025 have been widely covered by the media, as it tries to answer the questions of “why did this occur” and “who is responsible”. Innumerable servers are replete with links to the news reports. So, I want to focus on my own reaction to that event and subsequent days.

Consider a text that I received:

“We are thinking and praying for those who have been impacted by the natural disaster going on in Texas. Hope you are all safe.”

I was so disturbed by the text that I needed to dissect it:

“We are thinking and praying…”

The phrase saying that someone is in our “thoughts and prayers” has become an expeditious meme by GOP politicians and those who want to assume a “Christian” stance.

What are the thoughts of the GOP when they hurt Americans through cuts to social services, such as those provided by NOAA, FEMA, PBS, NPR, Medicare, Medicaid, and so many other agencies?

To whom do those responsible for safeguarding American lives pray? Are prayers substitutes for their responsibility to Americans? Are prayers stand-ins for compassion? How much is a human life worth to those in charge of agencies critical to the safety of Americans?

“…for those who have been impacted…”

How hollow, cold, impersonal, does that phrase sound to you? The flood victims had names, and parents, and siblings, and other relatives, and friends. They were children and adults, men and women, they were more than “…those who have been impacted…”. They fought for oxygen and breathed-in foul waters into their lungs while being terrified by forces beyond their comprehension that were sweeping them away. Death and injury are not mere impacts, they are devastating experiences to the victims, to their families, to their friends.

“…by the natural disaster going on in Texas.”

It is natural for it to rain and for water to flow downhill. It is inaccurate, if not false, to characterize the floods as “the natural disaster”. We know that the intensity of storms is increasing as a result of global warming induced by the burning of GOP-promoted fossil fuels. And we know that there is nothing natural about emergency systems being impaired, or non-existent, because of actions by GOP politicians. There is hubris and negligence in the powers currently in charge of our nation.

The paranoid focus on fueling our war machine, persecuting refugees, and cutting critical safety infrastructure, must end. We saw close to a million Americans die needlessly from COVID while the 45th POTUS played politics and obstructed expert health scientists for the sake of political drama. When will we learn?

“Hope you are all safe.”

Can I attribute the text that I received to a limited vocabulary? What drives people into these political cults that blind them to the basic needs of others?

Should we move beyond fear of the needy other?

Are we not sons and daughters of Creation?

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