http://www.usatoday.com/news/mapxmlfiles/earthquake.htm
When we think of an American soldier lost in combat, it is so easy for us to feel sympathy not just for the hero himself, but also for his comrades, his family and friends, the life he left behind. It’s scary to think that we can just as easily detach ourselves from the same feelings when we see numbers - thousands dead in an earthquake, millions killed in genocide. I don’t mean to say that there isn’t compassion for those who are suffering around the world; the movement to provide aid to Haiti in the aftermath of such devastation proves that there are, in fact, a tremendous number of people who care, despite the many cynics who have decided there isn’t much good left in the world (even though it can take a tragedy to make us to put down our Blackberrys, stop taking pictures of ourselves for Facebook, and show it).
Back when I wanted to be a writer, I had the privilege of doing an article on the presentation of a Holocaust survivor as she recollected her experiences to a group of students. She asked us to think about the Holocaust differently than we were taught about it, pleading that we remember each individual lost as having his or her own life destroyed instead of focusing on just how many people were killed. Which makes me question, what do you feel when you see a map of the 100+ places in the world that have lost thousands of people since the twentieth century? Or when you read about the over 200,000 people killed in a tsunami? Did your heart sink to your stomach when you thought about how many lives were destroyed?
In other words, why does it take pictures and videos of dying and crying people to remind us to think of them as people?
I am not at all trying to say that my moral compass is always pointing north (I can think of a few people - and blog posts - that would say otherwise)…just inspired by a friend who showed me just how tough it is to answer questions about human dignity, and say a prayer for those in Haiti. Maybe thinking about this can strike a chord in you too.
