Today we are one month from Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in the Jewish New Year/ High Holy Day cycle.
In ancient times, the high priest of Israel would take a goat from the tribes of the people, and energetically place all of the sins of the people into the body of the goat. Then, the priest would nudge the goat off into the direction of a large cliff where the goat would typically (let's just say they made him an offer he couldn't refuse) fall over the edge and die, thereby all of the people's sins would die as well, clearing the slate for another year.
"16:5 And he [Aaron] shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offerings.
7. And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Eternal at the entrance of the appointed tent.
8. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Eternal, and one lot for Azazel.
9. And Aaron shall offer the goat upon which the lot for the Eternal fell, and bring it for a sin offering.
10. But the goat, on which the lot fell to Azazel, shall stand alive before the Eternal, to extinguish guilt with it, and to send it forth unto Azazel into the desert.
20. And when he finished extinguishing the guilt for the holy place, and the appointed tent, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat.
21. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the evil of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions and sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send it forth into the desert.
22. And the goat shall bear upon it all their evil unto a desolate land; and he shall send forth the goat into the desert."
Hence, we get the word and concept of the "scapegoat."
In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, an officer on the French general staff, is accused of spying for Germany, France's opponent in the last war. The only evidence is a scrap of paper, retrieved from the wastebasket by a cleaning woman, with handwriting that does not much resemble that of Dreyfus. But Dreyfus is Jewish, the only Jew on the general staff. "And Jews are considered people without a fatherland, insufficiently loyal to the country they live in." Scapegoats.
Today, Michael Brown resigned as the director of FEMA amidst the swirling contempt the nation as a whole seems to be feeling toward the government's lack of efficiency and care following Hurricane Katrina. The matter that has ensued, I would suggest, is akin to a sort of "Katrina Affair," in which scapegoating is committed which turns the attention away from the heart of the matter. Within days following the hurricane, a German politician blasted President Bush instead of sending his kind words to the dead and dying in the Gulf Coast. In spite of his perhaps ill-timed political blast, his suggestion that had W placed more stock in the environmental precursors to the hurricane, then he could wholeheartedly send his condolences. However, it was common knowledge that our hurricanes are growing increasingly violent and deadly as a result of the global warming crisis that continues to be pushed aside as the core of the issue, even apart from the government's cutting budget monies over the past 10 years to reinforce the levy system in New Orleans. No coincidence that levy is synonymous with tax.
Michael Brown was indeed a silly choice for the head of the FEMA folks, having inadequate experience and being generally a slower than necessary individual. However, focusing the ineptness of FEMA on him is silly as well. Five years ago when the US National Forest Service conducted a federally sanctioned practice called a "controlled burn" in order to reduce potentially fire provoking areas of forest in New Mexico, the winds carried it right into the town of Los Alamos; right into the Los Alamos National Laboratories where all kinds of nuclear crap was burned up and sent into our atmosphere. I remember serving with the Red Cross Disaster Relief services during that crisis and finding folks with geiger counters running around between shelters as weird ash was falling on our heads. However, it was the local director of the Forest Service who was scapegoated and blamed for the entire affair. Come on. Things are just not that simple when it comes to our republic.
I'm not in a position to blame anyone for what has occurred in the Gulf region. I do, however, believe that our president has some responsibility at the core of the system and how it has broken down ever since the late chief justice cast the deciding vote to break the back of the US Constitution and put him into office. The system that has supported this country is shattered and there is light to be found and released from each reclaimed shard. What will it take to find these broken pieces of a system that used to work better at keeping us safe and caring for those who needed more care?
As we enter the month of Elul, the Hebrew month of taking stock and evaluating what has worked and what has failed, I pray (not sure to who or what these days but that is for another day) that we the people start to take stock of what we have had and what we are losing by the tankful every day.
