A Little More Clarity, Please

State Farm Insurance is being hammered in the press, particularly along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Thursday, Newsweek magazine picked up the theme and rhapsodized on it.

In an article headlined “The Check’s in the Mail,” reporter Joseph Contreras writes about John Hadden of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, who had been a responsible homeowner and overinsured his home. For a home worth $600,000, he bought $700,000 worth of insurance with State Farm Insurance. After the storm, he spray-painted a message on one of the remaining pilings: “All is well. Thank God and State Farm.” The Newsweek photo shows him posing beside that column, but the name of his insurer has been painted out. He is not very happy with State Farm.

It’s all a matter of whether the home was destroyed by floodwaters or by winds, the company says. And anyone can read in the policy what they cover and will replace. The policy? Want to hear how it reads? You’re going to love this.

“We do not insure any coverage for the loss which would not have occurred in the absence of one or more of the following excluded events. We do not insure for such loss regardless of: (a) the cause of the excluded event; or (b) other causes of the loss; or (c) whether other causes acted concurrently or in any sequence with the excluded event to produce the loss; or (d) whether the event occurs suddenly or gradually, involves isolated or widespread damage, arising from natural or external forces, or occurs as a result of any combination of these….”

In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion about government-speak, the bureaucratic way of expressing ideas and policies so as to be incomprehensible to anyone but other bureaucrats. But the federal government holds no patent on the practice. I defy anyone to explain to me, a fairly well-educated adult, what that jumble of words above means. Newsweek calls this “jargon only a lawyer could love.”


Now, Margaret and I insure our cars with State Farm and have for 30 years, going back to beloved deacon Red Earnest in Columbus, Mississippi. They have come through quickly and generously after we’ve had fender-benders. But there is no excuse for this business. Consider this a “thank-you-Lord” that our home insurere is American National Property and Casualty, who responded a little slowly after Katrina but came through responsibly and even generously. And a thank-you to Jim McCarthy, our agent.

Laura Bush, the single resident of the White House whose approval ratings are never in jeopardy, was in New Orleans Wednesday. She and local preservationists are vowing their commitment to taking care of endangered historic properties, and for that we are grateful. Following her talk, conferees headed for a tent erected on the campus of Tulane University and a talk given by NBC newsman Brian Williams. And here, I quote from the newspaper:

“Williams recalled sordid conditions facing storm victims who sought refuge in the Dome and the sight of rushing water and a floating body on Canal Street, and he drew heavy applause for keeping the Katrina story before America.”

“But the reception wasn’t all laudatory. Comedian Harry Shearer, a part-time New Orleans resident who pens a blog highly critical of the media, rose from the crowd to accuse NBC, and Williams in particular, of downplaying the Army Corps of Engineers’ role in constructing substandard levees and floodwalls. Federal culpability isn’t widely recognized across the country, he argued.”

“‘To me, the reason why the guy in North Dakota should care is that this isn’t just a case of bad weather,’ Shearer said.”

“Williams responded that Shearer’s biting criticism in his blog had already gotten his heart rate up. He noted that NBC has focused its attention on storm victims who are struggling to get back home, and that viewers have a limited attention span.”

“But he said the news program’s Thursday night broadcast would focus on the corps, and he challenged Shearer to ‘meet me down at one of these levees tomorrow’ to talk about the issue as the camera rolls.”

I looked for Brian Williams at the 17th Street Canal around 3 o’clock Thursday. Someone was broadcasting, but no one I recognized.

The number of murders in New Orleans is climbing. Now at 44, this compares with 109 at the same time last year.

With the summer intern for our (Louisiana) Baptist Message in my office Tuesday morning, I tried to impress upon her the need for caution in her travels around the city. Amy assured me her mother back in Wichita, Kansas, was indeed concerned, but had committed her to the Lord. She told me how she had stumbled onto the French Quarter the other night (actually, she drove herself there in her car; can one stumble in an automobile?) and how exciting she was to see the place she’s heard so much about. Grandpa Joe stood in for mom back in Wichita and I gave her a young sermon on staying safe in New Orleans. I told her about the safest place in our city, LaFreniere Park in Metairie, being the scene of a 51-year-old woman’s being abducted and murdered two nights earlier. She was walking the well-lighted paths while her adult son jogged, and was found the next morning. Amy should assume nothing, take nothing for granted, as she travels these streets.

The next morning, the newspaper ran a photo of the construction worker being sought for the woman’s murder. He is from Wichita, Kansas. What is the likelihood of that?

“America’s Most Wanted” is to feature this story and that man on its show this week.

City leaders vow their intent to bring back the blighted, drowned housing projects in some new and improved plan. A headline in Thursday’s paper: “N.O. housing tenants threaten takeover.” After 9 months of being shut out of their flooded homes, and after getting no good answers at a Wednesday conference with HUD officials, some tenants are promising action of their own. A former resident of the St. Bernard complex, now living in Baton Rouge, said, “I will go in and clean my house. I can repair anything. I’ll put my hands togehter and work. I am tired. If it wasn’t for the grace of God, I’d probably be gone from stress.” Karen Downs is living in a federally subsidized apartment in the state capital and has a medical condition, she says, which includes heart trouble. She rides a bus to New Orleans for treatment and says she is missing her scattered family. No doubt.

Downs and other St. Bernard residents say they plan to take back their former homes this weekend, even at the risk of facing down the authorities. The razor-topped chain-link fence surrounding the project does not frighten them. “We’re going to tear (it) down,” said Downs. Stay tuned.

I’m preaching Sunday morning at the New Covenant Fellowship in Harvey where Thomas and Jill Glover pastor, and that night at the First Haitian Baptist Church in Gretna. Pastor Blanchard will be interpreting for me Sunday night. I plan to speak clearly and plainly, concisely and Scripturally. When a man stands to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that’s the only way.

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