1 year ago
You know what drives me crazy about the news right now? I’ll set aside the bias, pointless stories, and the finger-pointing. Right now I am annoyed at how whenever a disaster happens oversees, there has to be this focus on how the Americans over there are doing. Really? So you just can’t have compassion for an entire nation of people unless you hear a story about how our fellow Americans have to suffer too? Japan is all broken up and practically underwater but hey, here are some Americans who rode out the storm. Let’s hear their story. It just seems so selfish. I sometimes understand that maybe the news wants us to feel connected. By hearing personal stories of someone who could be your next door neighbor brings some sort of realization. But when you see the photos and the videos of the devastation, shouldn’t that be enough to feel connected to every person over there?
While Egypt was in the middle of a revolution, we had to also be mindful that some American woman watched it all from the window of her apartment and how it was affecting her. People died for democracy. Bussinesses shut down so people could protest in the streets. A whole nation stood for something. But when the news singles out how we’re doing over in any other place than “home”, it takes away from this idea of solidarity and community. Their pain cannot be our pain. Their distress cannot be ours either. Not unless we hear a story of just US.
I think people cannot really help others unless they truly feel sympathetic. It’s not enough to throw money at a situation and believe that’s how it can be fixed. It takes a little mourning on our part, it takes action, and it takes awareness. And true, not everyone can fly straight into the disaster with a load of supplies but it’s okay to leave that to the people who can. You’ll eventually find something you can do.
I remember, probably a week after Katrina, my mom took me to a center where they had refugees-mostly single mothers with babies or toddlers. And our job was just to feed or hold these babies while the mothers slept or figured things out. The center was cold. It used to be an Albertsons a long time ago so it had bright lights overhead and linoleum floors. Many of the mothers were mainly staring into space and they, of course, didn’t have much clothing. It looked like whatever they had on was either too big or too small. Either way, you just knew it wasn’t their own. For months nothing was their own. And I, who always feels awkward around babies, sat and held one while my mother, a nurse, chatted up some of the moms. The baby I held was calm and quiet. She had her bottle and she was just looking up at me with her big brown eyes. I forgot about my fear of babies (I’m always scared they’ll cry immediately when put in my arms or that I’ll drop them, I don’t know.) I forgot all that and I too felt a calm come over me.
There is something in comfort that allows worry to subside. I think instead of separating myself from the situation, to be in it gave me a better understanding. I’ll never fully understand that turmoil of leaving my home without anything but the clothes on my back. And I’ll never fully understand what all the people of Japan are going through. But my heart is in the right place because I truly tried to “get it”. I can’t think of how just the Americans are doing in times like this. I have to think of the whole to really be proactive. When things like this arise, it helps not to see the ME. It helps to see the WE.
