My Heart Goes Out to Haiti

Tragedies happen every day in this world. Sometimes their proximity or sheer size makes a difference in our responses. Seems like if bad things happen in a far off place we've never heard of it's easy to spend maybe two seconds reading the headline and then going on about our business. If the catastrophe is local, we may invest a little more emotion and maybe even try to do something to help.

It's all a part of human nature, I guess. When 9-11 happened, I don't imagine there was a soul in this country not profoundly affected, except for some cases, I knew where the people were so far out in the back country away from news of the outside world, they didn't learn about the bombings until several days later.

I can't even imagine what that would have been like---to grasp the enormity of the event after the fact and after virtually everyone else you knew had lived every minute of the event, riveted to their television sets watching each incident unfold and learning within seconds the extent of what had happened.

When the huge earthquake in Mexico happened back in the 1980s, our family all paid more attention than usual. My older brother had just taken a job with Scott Paper Co. in Mexico City.

He had been there less than a week. He was on his way to work in a city outside the big city when the quake occurred and knew something was wrong when he started seeing powerlines putting off huge sparks. He said the car seemed to have a problem too.

Back here in North Idaho, we glued ourselves to the television news because of his presence there. It was a relief to learn that he was okay, except for dealing with the inconvenience of leaving his hotel every time another after-shock occurred.

We still don't know the magnitude of yesterday's Haitian disaster, except for the Richter Scale reporting of the earthquake and for the reporting from individuals that have contacted the outside world via Skype, telephone, etc. When specific news unfolds, however, I'm sure we'll be horrified and moved to do something to help.

Seems the epitome of unfairness for a country so poverty-stricken to be dealt yet another giant wallop in the face and to have that wallop come straight from the Earth. It raises the continual question of "Why?" Why do those who suffer most have to suffer even more?

When disasters like the Haitian earthquake occur, I often do think, "But for the Grace of God go I." What if, instead of a beautiful little podunk town like Sandpoint . . . what if I'd been born somewhere else?

How much easier or how much more difficult would life have been had I grown up somewhere else? Would I be sitting at a computer in the comfort of my country home tapping away at the keyboard, organizing my thoughts on how to react to the latest world tragedy, or would I have been trapped under a building in the rubble, still breathing and wondering if I would survive?

These tragedies do put things in perspective for those of us fortunate to live comparatively carefree lives where an occasional broken water pipe or a temporary electrical outage or even having to go out to clean off the satellite dish suddenly seems so inconsequential.

Everything's relative, they say. We react to our little calamities often with great fervor, while we may react to major catastrophes in far off places----where thousands of people suffer or die, complete infrastructures go down and chaos reigns supreme----with a sigh or a "that's too bad" comment.

And, then we go back to throwing a conniption fit if the paper doesn't show up every morning at the same time.

My heart does go out to the people of Haiti. I hope we as a nation of generally more fortunate souls will once more collectively do our small part in helping the people of this distressed country rise out of the rubble.

And, maybe next time the paper doesn't show up, I'll put aside my ire and consider the fact that life could be a heckuva lot worse.