On the other hand, at least no one's calling them "aliens"

I don't know if you're tired of hearing about Katrina-related matters in this space, but I find myself gripped by fear that, if we as citizens and as the media leave it aside, this story will be gone forever, the audacity of a government forgetting to save its poor will be forgotten, and no good, not even hope for the future, will be born from this tragedy. This is a religion blog, too, and it's not surprising that I think of the Bible when reading of the Biblical scale of suffering in the Gulf, of Jesus' social justice teachings when reading of the magnitude of charity that will be needed, and of God's promise of transcendence when life from weather to the government seems sordid and senseless. So here we go again with Katrina, for whatever good it may do her survivors, for the good I hope it may do any of you.

The latest religion-linked Katrina story to catch my eye had to do with a drama over what to call those who made it out alive. Certain media outlets are publicly eschewing the word "refugees", saying it carries all sorts of negative connotations, from being beggars to being, er, not American. (First off, must we really admit in print that anyone takes "not American" as a slur? They do have the Internet in other countries, you know.)

John Kass--a Tribune columnist who does an excitingly good job of picking out the heart of an issue--pointed out that the media's words and images matter little to those who fled Katrina, and to those who died. True. But I think I'm going to join the language police's volunteer search party on this one: we can do better than "refugee" for our displaced countryfolk. Here's why:

For one thing, educated people in the US (a group tacitly assumed to include most members of the media and of the government) show respect by deferring to an individual's choice in naming identity. The glaring exception occurs when you want to challenge someone's beliefs or their right to a title. Full-figured differently-learning sanitation engineers are A-OK, but nobody calls you "pro-choice" or "pro-life" unless they're on your side. We respect people by calling them what they think they are, which means, despite my blathering, that is is somewhat insulting to be associated with non-Americans if you want to claim your rightful pride in American citizenship. If you buy the contention of Prof. Melissa Harris-Lacewell in the linked Tribune article that "refugee" carries a connotation of someone seeking help from a government not their own, its use in the Katrina context does de-Americanize citizens and perhaps implies that our sending aid to them is an extreme form of charity, rather than a country taking care of its own.

Countries take care of their own; families take care of their own; peoples take care of their own; when it comes to those who are "other" than us, we need to be reminded, our charity sometimes needs to be piqued. Who could forget the resonance of Leviticus: "When an alien resides with you in your land, do not molest him. You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God." (19:33-34). We've seen the spots on the love this country can show to those who come here fleeing poverty. Inattention, discrimination and deportation--the ultimate sin against hospitality--show how far we have to go to reach that Levitical ideal of loving the refugee as we love our own.

Media word-mangling won't matter much to Katrina survivors, but the messages the words convey are for us, not them. Those of us reading the papers are in a position to help, and need to be reminded that our sisters and brothers are suffering. Why not couch the reminder in just those terms--words that emphasize our closeness and our duty to them, instead of comparing them to strangers? Sure, we like to think that we help strangers with a will, and we sometimes do. But many of our hearts house a very human preference for helping one's closest ones. Katrina survivors have that closeness, and they deserve to claim it.