Titanic Post

There is this young man who’s name I do not know. All day, every work day from 7:00 to 5:00, he stands on South Florida directing traffic. South Florida is a street in New Mexico and has nothing to do with Florida. It doesn’t even point in the direction of Florida, but rather in the general direction of El Paso, Texas.

There, on South Florida, good desert dirt is being loaded in trucks on the east side of South Florida and moved across the street and into the desert on the west side of the street. It is not obvious why they are moving the dirt. The dirt on the west side seems to be just fine without the eastern dirt. There, this young man stops South Florida traffic when one of the trucks crosses the street and then signals the cars to continue when the big trucks full of dirt have cleared the road.

What makes this young man so special is his satisfied demeanor. Even though he spends most of his day breathing the dust stirred up by the trucks, he greets every vehicle with a broad smile, a nod of the head, and a curt little salute. He does this as though he realizes how absurd is the situation of which he is an important part, possibly the only important part. He has been doing this for about five weeks. I don’t know the man’s name and from his unfailing gestures of friendliness, I don’t think it is important to him if anyone knows or not. A truly self contained man–at least on this job. I see the smiles on the faces of drivers who have just passed him.

As a contrast, the evangelist Pat Robinson, doesn’t measure up to Crossing Guy. He and his bowl of nuts want to see President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela assassinated, I suppose because Chávez is selling oil to poor countries at a discount. This is upsetting to the American oil interests. He is also offering food and free health care to the poor. Chávez has even offered to sell cheap gasoline to poor Americans. Chávez must be a communist or maybe even a real Christian? Bush doesn’t like Chávez either and would like to see him “taken out.” Pat Robinson just may have saved Chávez’s life, because it would now be awkward for Bush to have him assassinated.

Tony Campolo is a different kind of evangelist. According to a profile in Christianity Today, “The Positive Prophet,” Campolo would often begin a speech with: “I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a shit. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said ’shit’ than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”

It wasn’t easy getting these four men into this essay, but it was satisfying.