It’s the end of the work week for most people but certainly for the survivors and workers cleaning up after Florida’s latest hurricane which the know-nothings call a series of freak storms. Warming waters causing storms to form in the Gulf of Mexico have nothing to do with the frequency, of course.
Rebuilding will take time, as it always does. It took almost a decade to rebuild after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. And then there wasn’t the intense anti-immigrant animus we see today. But, in spite of Florida’s draconian laws, immigrants will do much of the rebuilding, just as they did before.
Unfortunately, storm damage has become a political issue, full of deliberate lies about bodies in the streets, bulldozing the dead, and the lack of federal response. The real question for places like Florida and the Atlantic shoreline is making sure that greedy developers don’t tempt people to overdevelop, robbing the shorelines of important marshlands that soak up storm water.
Prayer for the Day
You call us to love one another without limits,
But we do not love each other without reservation;
You call us to recognize each other as brothers and sisters,
But we create boundaries to exclude many.
Open our minds and hearts to all who seek shelter,
Helping us in our times of need following devastation,
In the name of the One who makes no artificial boundaries,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Even still, Project 2025—a far-right road map that would gut the country’s nearly 250-year-old system of checks and balances—proposes, on page 750, an “end to SBA direct lending,” the only instance of which is the disaster loan program.
Analysis by Center for American Progress
We've had hurricanes like this hit Honduras, and people have helped us. And that's one reason I want to help. We do it with all our hearts. We do it because we are all equal.
Josue, an undocumented immigrant, afraid to work in Florida after Milton
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negreb.
May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping bearing the seed for sowing
Shall come home with shouts of joy bearing their sheaves.
Psalm 126: 4-6