I was sitting in the car yesterday listening to what I am sure is my ten thousandth plus commercial that is trying to raise money for hurricaine relief. My first thought was pride at how well we are able to come together in times of crisis. But then I thought two things.
First I thought of the number of places in the world that have experienced the level of destruction that the gulf coast has. There are a fair number of such places that spring to mind. The areas in South East Asia, for example, whose fundraising commercials I remembered being all over the radio a few months before. Then I thought of some other areas that did not have any fund-raising commercials. Iraq. Afghanistan. The level of destruction wrought on these places is almost as severe as the aftermath of a hurricaine, the death toll far higher.
This lack of active compassion for places torn by war instead of by a natural disaster is the second thing I thought of in the car yesterday. It seems to me that the opposite should be true. After all, it is no secret that hurricaines, even very destructive hurricaines, are not all too uncommon on the Gulf Coast. That is, there may be some implied risk in a decision to live there. And while I recognize that many New Orleans residents had no means to live elsewhere, many did. And our aid and our empathy are given to both equally.
In war-torn countries, however, no natural disaster caused the destruction. Instead, we simply allowed our behavior to degrade it so thoroughly that it became uninhabitable! And yet we dig deeper into our pockets to help people hurt through no fault of our own!