As we all know, Japan was struck by a terrible 8.9 magnitude earthquake on Friday and multiple subsequent tsunamis. The news channels keep showing us the same footage over and over, and while the death toll was originally estimated to be in the hundreds, now it's in the tens of thousands. I'm not surprised. I've never seen such a horrible natural disaster in my life, and that includes Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes, or even other earthquakes.
The worldwide psychic energy was overwhelming at first. The last time I felt it, the day was September 11th. It was like somehow, I tapped into America's collective consciousness and felt everything everyone else did. It was like riding a bolt of grief-stricken lightning. On Friday, I felt that again. The energy was so strong that it threatened to choke out my own essence. Even still, I was glad for it because it assured me that thousands, perhaps millions, of people cared about their fellow man, even if they weren't Americans.
What made it real for me was when my ten year old son, Michael, asked me what a tsunami was. I waited for the inevitable footage of the twenty-three foot wall of water crushing part of Japan's coast to explain. Then I pointed to the footage and said, "See this huge wave coming inland, Michael? That's a tsunami. It's a huge wave that destroys everything it touches, and sweeps everything away, including people." My words snapped me out of my scientific apathy. I looked at the wave crushing buildings, knocking down power lines, and washing cars away, and I realized that even though I couldn't see them, there were people in that water. They were drowning right before my eyes, and I couldn't do anything to help save them. I felt so helpless, and it broke my heart. I struggled not to cry in front of my children.
I thought Facebook would be abuzz with talk of what had happened, and sure, on the first day, the prayers circled around. But last night, after Japan was hit with a 7.9 aftershock, and after CNN had reported the nuclear plant might currently be undergoing meltdowns in two separate reactors, I checked to see what people were saying. I was disgusted by how quickly people had gone about life as usual. The Farmville requests were back in full force, as were all the stupid little games one can play on Facebook. People were talking about getting drunk and partying before the weekend was over. They were talking about sports and St. Patrick's Day, and asking who was going to drink a green beer in celebration. Even the news pages I follow had long forgotten about it. The St. Patrick's Day Parade was on the top of their list. It was like because it wasn't us, we can forget. We took our obligatory moment of silence, and now it's life as usual.
How did America become so apathetic and complacent? Why don't we care longer than is expected of us, and why is that just us going through the proprietary motions? CNN's weather man reported that as of last night it was eleven degrees in Japan. Now think about that. The Japanese survivors are homeless, without food, without heat, without electricity, a lot of them soaking wet, and it's eleven degrees. That's not just adults. That's children and old people too. How many people will have survived the earthquake only to die of exposure or starvation? And yet, we in America sit in our comfy homes, gluttonously pigging out junk food while we furiously play on the internet or watch TV. It's sickening!
I'm not trying to point blame because I think a lot of our apathy is this feeling of helplessness. They're so far away, and what can we really do to help anyway? So we say a prayer and go about our lives, hoping things will get better. But you can help. Donate money to the Red Cross. They're only asking for $10. In addition, they let you choose where you want your money to go to help. Obviously, I did this, and I checked Japan. The Red Cross is a reputable organization and they'll buy the stuff the Japanese people need to get through this catastrophe.
Here's the link:
http://www.redcross.org/
Please shake off this apathy and see what you can do to help.
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