sad thoughts
God I feel awful for all the people struck by the tsunamis - I mean, as bad as things have been for me lately, at least I wasn't swept out to sea. I think that 9/11 was a tragedy, but I'm not sure if it's made (relatively) worse or better because it was manmade. But what do you do when you're minding your own business, mending something in your village, feeding your kids, whatever, when a wall of water comes crashing down? It's not like you caused it. It's not like your nation's activities caused (or did not cause, depending on viewpoint) it - nor did some guy hiding in a cave somewhere. No camel in a tent in the desert is going to be hit in the ass by a million dollar missle over this. Their outrage can't be conveniently poured into military options - and most of these countries are so poor that it isn't as though their government is going to appear on the hill on a white horse, come to save them, either.
Sometimes I think that we in the West are spoiled. That we in the US are especially so. Really I don't think that's the case - it isn't as though all the world truly felt our pain over 9/11 (do you recall people dancing in streets? I do). Not even all of us felt it. Just like we didn't really feel the pain of downed Russian airliners, middle east earthquakes, Spanish train station bombings, Russian school massacres...
It seems that when we watch the news of all this suffering and bloodshed it's the same as when we watch "West Wing", and we go hey, that's CNN in the background. That's all it is to us - background filler. Texture to our lives. Our lives...and we don't stop to realize that the people affected are just as alive as we are, and just as valid.
Except, now, 25000 of them likely aren't alive. Who knows, maybe a handful of them are.
Somewhere, out at sea.
Sometimes I think that we in the West are spoiled. That we in the US are especially so. Really I don't think that's the case - it isn't as though all the world truly felt our pain over 9/11 (do you recall people dancing in streets? I do). Not even all of us felt it. Just like we didn't really feel the pain of downed Russian airliners, middle east earthquakes, Spanish train station bombings, Russian school massacres...
It seems that when we watch the news of all this suffering and bloodshed it's the same as when we watch "West Wing", and we go hey, that's CNN in the background. That's all it is to us - background filler. Texture to our lives. Our lives...and we don't stop to realize that the people affected are just as alive as we are, and just as valid.
Except, now, 25000 of them likely aren't alive. Who knows, maybe a handful of them are.
Somewhere, out at sea.