We are all family in this and every tragedy
Ironically, it is a happy moment for some who would downplay the charity that streams from people throughout that country to those they don’t know and could easily neglect.
So when we buy that newspaper or listen to that station replete with gratuitous attacks, perhaps we should bear in mind their agenda and remember every society has triumphs and tragedy, generosity and greed, openness and discrimination. Every society is working on its demons.
Often we need only to look at ourselves to find the same. Hurricane Katrina has taught us once again that we are in this world together and that no country possesses immunity from crisis, no matter how large, no matter how wealthy. Wealth has a way of making us comfortable; it fosters an illusion of independence.
Yet, no amount of money protects us when nature or mankind takes a destructive course. As human beings we should stop ourselves from letting angst eclipse compassion.
Otherwise we slip, perhaps unwittingly, to a level no better than the worst in those we disparage. As we all watch a situation go terribly wrong for a country whose leadership always appears so confident, it’s good to remember that this leadership is not America; it is not the suffering people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. When politics is pushed aside, people are left.
We are, as one hurricane victim so eloquently conveyed, all family in this and every tragedy. Civility and compassion are little enough to give right now. Time enough later to carp and smirk if that is what must happen.
For now, no matter the blame, no matter the shame, it wouldn’t hurt to simply try to lend a hand, a prayer, or a kind word to those affected.
For each of us who refuses to slip into pettiness, there is a palpable boost for all.
Kathleen Kelley Reardon
Colla Road
Schull
Co Cork
