Okay, I really chickened out of writing about the disaster last week. I just didn't know what to say. It was all so sad and horrible. I hope that after we all donate to the cause, pray for the victims, and generally do everything we can from a distance, we consider our own vulnerabilities. It has always been so easy to be a little condesending about earthquakes in Iran or other disasters in unfamiliar countries that end in istan. We've listend to the reporters warn of diseases like cholera or malaria and smugly thought that could never happen here where we are so techno enlightened.
I don't feel so smug anymore. I live near the Pacific coast, in earthquake country, near a major river. And I don't have a supply of potable water on hand. Neither do I have a first aid kit, a battery operated radio or any of those other things the experts have been telling us to hide away for years. But I'm going to have them all tucked away in the storage room in my garage by the end of the week.
It's easy to blame the mayor or the governor, or God knows, George Bush for the grossly inadequate response to the disaster but blaming doesn't change anything for the victims. Make another donation. Make a monthly donation. Then go out and buy some candles and a little water for the garage.
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I find the discussions that are happening now about "blame" fascinating. It's becoming so political, of course. I don't feel the need to blame anyone, but I want to feel secure in our leaders, which means we need to figure out what went so horribly wrong down there and how we can keep it from happening again. If heads have to roll for that to be the case, so be it.
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