Death Takes No Holiday

AmbivaBlog, a moderate: "Disaster takes no breather, and now that we have the means to be aware of every large disaster, and many small ones too, we feel guilty whenever we allow our awareness to rest. Or I should say, I do. Maybe you don't. I am too fatigued with my immediate petty responsibilities to strap the world on my back today. I have let my news-watching lapse. And I feel guilty about it. This is absurd. Egotistical, even. It makes not the slightest material difference to those stranded and bereaved in shelters after Katrina, or hopeless and numb in the refugee camps outside Darfur, or digging their children out of collapsed school buildings with bare bloody hands in Pakistan, whether I am, or you are, thinking about them today or not. Yet we feel tasked with awareness, and awareness makes us feel charged to do something, even if that 'something' is just a tiny drop in the ocean of charity, or of prayer. Well, that's what both charity and prayer are for -- to turn our concern over to something larger."

Am I the only one who noticed that the U.S. government sent evacuation helicopters that arrived halfway around the world in Pakistan in two days? When New Orleans residents waited up to five days to be evacuated? It could cause one to conclude that the Bush administration believes that Asian Muslims - many if not most of whom are al Qaeda lovers - are more important than black American citizens. Just a thought that has crossed my mind....