Disasters are unpleasantly normal. We always hope we will outgrow the human disasters of war and terrorism, and we pray that Mother Nature will be kind. But we don’t and she isn’t. The only thing to do is plan for disaster, an ancient idea. I’d like to put forward a revised, ancient idea from the Bible, Numbers 35:11-28, the cities of refuge. The ancient idea was to provide protection for the person guilty of manslaughter from the avenger of blood. The cities were populated by priests, a specialized group qualified to judge a killer’s guilt or innocence. The modern version would be more about sheltering those displaced by war or natural disaster. We could populate the cities with people who are trained to meet disaster head on offering emergency services for which they would be stocked and prepared. There would also be people trained in repatriating or rehoming people as the crisis allows. Those who wanted to help a refugee would buy them a ticket to a city of refuge. When the nearest city filled to capacity, the next city would open. We would professionalize caring for the displaced.
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