Bringing it on ourselves
Dear editor:
At first reading, two letters in Sunday’s paper (April 26) might seem to be in minor conflict with each other. One called for unity in fighting the terrible virus that is sickening millions and taking the lives of thousands across the world. Twice Ms. Wright says, “May God help us.”
Then Mr. Hoffman asks the very disturbing question, “Could God be trying to get our attention?” by sending storm and pestilence upon a sinful people.
He seems to be saying that God is the author of these evils that are raining mass destruction and pain upon His people, blowing apart our homes and businesses and schools with storms, and torturing the bodies of our loved ones with fever and pneumonia, even death. Infants and young children, along with our grandparents, are subject to His wrath, I suppose. It is hard to conceive of a situation where babes in arms and 9-year-olds deserve such treatment.
The unity letter is very helpful as we fight to get through this crisis. So many individuals and companies are placing emotionally moving ads and announcements on television, calling on us to recognize and be thankful for the self-giving efforts of everyday people who plod along, sustaining and saving lives, or perhaps just taking care of the mundane business of our daily lives. The Sentinel-Record, in the same issue, made me stop and think when the paper thanked janitors: “We see you, we appreciate you, and you truly are all heroes!” I add my thanksgiving when I hear the garbage cans rattle or see the recycle workers hefting my compost sacks. We must go on with our lives while the medical and scientific community figure out how to stop this scourge and move us back to normal.
Mr. Hoffman seems to credit God with the unprecedented natural events that are terrorizing great swaths of America, adding insult to injury by following the pandemic with weather disasters, for the purpose of chastising us. God seeks to get our attention with more and bigger tornadoes, hail, thunderstorms, a cold Easter, low oil prices, high unemployment that causes a slowdown in our daily travel, and a falling stock market. I apologize if I am misconstruing his intent. Coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, these things are seen as messages from God that mankind needs to straighten up and fly right.
He is right when he says that the timing and severity of these events are not coincidental. I, along with thousands of scientists, blame humans for causing climate change. Our poor stewardship of such things as trees, soil and water, and our pollution of the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, are to blame for the changing weather patterns. More and stronger tornadoes and hurricanes, rising ocean levels, melting glacial ice, and massive wildfires, are certainly getting our attention. But we brought it on ourselves. Nature is demanding our attention. If there is punishment involved, we will indeed suffer. But our children and their children will suffer more. C.G. Smith Hot Springs