I've resisted posting about the earthquake/tsunami relief efforts, because I was hoping that I could somehow process the information before talking about it. But I'm unable to continue day to day blogging without saying something. First of all, if you haven't donated even a dollar, somewhere, please consider doing so. I, before I began this post, donated a small amount to the American Red Cross, through Amazon. If you don't know where else to donate, go to Amazon.com and they have a very easy process of donation right on their main page. And please consider the depth of this--Amazon is a for-profit company that is diverting their customers, and possibly losing money, to relief efforts. Google also has a link provided for tsunami relief, if you choose not to patronize Amazon.
My friend C told me today that she had donated to the Red Cross; I hadn't yet, and was hoping to hold out. Not because I don't want to donate, but in six months, when the immediate task of cleaning up is over, and people have been fed with relief effort food, and there are basic shelters for people up, there will be nothing. There will be no seeds, or animals for farms. No machinery for small business owners. There will be nothing but what can be scrounged up. I had hoped that some agency would set up a program (like the ones I know exist for Third World countries) where instead of just sending money, you could send a goat. Or a year's worth of medicine. I feel strongly that giving the means to keep nourishing can be just as important as just giving nourishment. However, right now, it's more important to help, and to help in any way you can. Even giving a dollar will probably feed someone, at least for a day.
The other reason I wanted to blog was because of a comment my friend T has on his away message. I hope you don't mind, T, but I'm going to talk about it, because in fact, C and I had a conversation about this today. T said, "80,000 dead is more than 25 times the devastation of 9/11. I wish someone would say that." I can't imagine why people aren't making the connection. 80,000 people. Maybe more. And we don't care. Oh, wait, we do care about the interior designer and the supermodel. But everyone else can go hang. And President Bush's response is embarrassing. If people had acted with that much indifference to 9/11, we'd be trashing them as much we've trashed the French. But apparently, since this is an "act of God", we're not as outraged. C said today that it might be because so many Americans have failed to become global citizens. Sadly, she's right. If the suffering isn't here, it's just a minor tragedy. Page 23 or something like that in the newspaper. Witness our reaction to the devastation in Rwanda. Or Sub-Saharan Africa, where AIDS is ravaging the population.
But this isn't a minor tragedy; we shouldn't treat it as such. Please give what you can. And if you already have, I'm glad. The world is glad.
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