“The wind began to switch, the house to pitch, and suddenly the hinges started to unhitch,” sings Dorothy as she tries to explain to the Munchkins how she ended up in their place. By that time Auntie Em and the rest of the family were in the tornado cellar waiting for the terrible storm to pass.
Following the terrible disaster this past December, a little known industry group is lobbying against code changes that would save literally hundreds of lives each year. For about $15,000 buildings can be equipped with a concrete shelter against the probable loss of life. But when builders are concerned, lives aren’t worth that outlay.
Consider the high rises on the Jersey Shore built by developers not even subject to the lax rules of the high rises along the Florida coast. What’s a life worth? Obviously more than the builders claim they can afford.
Prayer for the Day
You know us, O God, our thoughts, what we choose to do and do not choose to do;
Your hand is upon us; your Spirit seeks to speak through us.
We know cannot flee from you even if we take the wings of the morning
And fly to the outermost limits of earth or sea for you are there.
Be with us, O Lord, as we seek to care for one another
And hold accountable those who would hold profit above people.
In the name of the One who holds all accountable,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design.
-Gardiner, English architect (1924-2007)
What was it like then to witness the transformation wrought by this construction? A geometric idea of precision suddenly imposed on a landscape, lived on and in for centuries.
- Susan Griffin, American essayist and poet (b. 1943)
Woe to the one who builds a house by unrighteousness
And the upper rooms by injustice, who makes neighbors work for nothing,
And does not give them their wages;
Who says, “I will build myself a spacious house with large upper rooms,”
And who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar,
And painting it with vermillion.
Jeremiah 22: 13-14