Lunacy...

How can it be, in a city suffering so much, that New Orleans now has a gang problem? One reporter referred to it as "urban warfare". Another call the situation more dangerous than Baghdad.

I learned today that a good friend of mine is battling for his life and the lives of countless others in New Orleans even as I type this. He is under threat of gunfire, theft, starvation, dehydration, and physical abuse. He's been on the job since the hurricane struck, and he can see no relief in sight. Police officer you say? Fireman? National guardsman?

Try doctor.

At Kenner Memorial Hospital in downtown New Orleans, first year resident Andy Roddenberry is fighting to save lives. He and 5 other doctors are attempting to stabilize and triage over 1000 patients. Statistics alone suggest they cannot be effective for long. They have no power, no food, no water, no way to sterilize their equipment and no means to transport the most critical among the sick.

Efforts to drop medical supplies and nutritional aid were met by a hostile gang of thugs. Several of those lurking in and around the hospital are brandishing firearms out in the open. Threats have been made. By the grace of God, no threat has yet been carried out. Who is to say how long such a tenuous peace will last.

My suggestion is simple: send the national guard in. Better yet, send in some troops who have spent the last year of their lives fighting in Iraq. See what level of tolerance and patience they have for those who seek to force their own will among the helpless. What is taking days to accomplish peacefully would take only minutes to resolve. Patients could then be transferred, the hospital could be evacuated, the hungry could eat, the thirsty drink, and my friend, the hero in all of this, could come home.

For now, we pray and wait, in hopes that the swift hand of justice and the sweet hand of mercy reach down simultaneously for the stranded.