Having moved home to Lafayette just over a year ago, I was pleased to find a weekly that I considered informative and intelligently put together. How disappointed I was though, this week, to find in the opinion section the use of Christ in a cartoon-like depiction ("Snake Oil," Oct. 5).
We have all been touched, in some way, by the devastation of not one but two natural disasters. I have family as well as close friends who have been displaced, moved around, shattered, devastated and sickened by having to leave their homes not knowing when they will be able to return and others never able to return.
We should all be on our knees, praying for those displaced, praying for the loss of not only homes and personal possessions but most importantly for lives lost. We should be on our knees thanking Christ for all the blessings here, no matter how small.
We should not be using Christ as a cartoon. In this very issue your cover story on a man taking in 30 or more during this time and the struggle faced by he and his family is only the tip of this big iceberg. Do you have a warm bed to sleep in, Greg Peters? How many people are you housing? If a trailer is the only way to provide someone shelter, it is still much better than the street, with no place to call home.
Remember the story of "no place in the inn?" Remember Christmas and the stable that provided Christ and his family with a place to stay? With the holidays fast approaching I can only pray to Christ that there will be some shelter in this storm for families no matter how large, small, educated, no matter the color of their skin, no matter where they came from or what their contribution to society was or will be. A makeshift evacuee trailer park for some is better than nothing. Back atcha, ya loser.
Jennifer M. Mouton, Lafayette
Greg Peters responds: Ms. Mouton completely misses the point of my cartoon. Needless to say, I was not mocking the evacuees or their living conditions, but those across Louisiana and Texas who reject settlements of those evacuees, reasoning that a trailer park full of New Orleanians would constitute a "bad element." I suggest Ms. Mouton start with the Gretna bridge crossing incident and then ask, "Would Christ say, 'Not in my backyard'?" Would your neighbors?