Apathy

I don't know if you were aware, but there's kind of a huge earthquake that happened yesterday in Haiti. An estimated 100,000 are dead, with hundreds of thousands injured and devastation everywhere. The Parliament has literally collapsed, as well as hospitals, schools, and homes. Basically, every entity that most Americans totally take for granted has been left as rubble.

Today in the University Union and the Rec Center, i watched the news coverage that was coming in. There are horrifying pictures of people that are dead, wounded, mourning, and searching for loved ones. And while I was watching the flickering screens, I was also watching some of my peers. People in the rec center kept doing their workouts, many of them swimming in magazines or gossip instead of watching the news. In the UU, there were some gathered around the televisions but many were meeting with tudy groups or talking about their plans for the weekend.

I guess I can't blame them. Being a student is a lot of hard work. You're constantly learning new things, running around from place to place, and trying to make deadlines, all while trying to maintain your health, social life, and sanity.

I guess I just feel like a lot more attention could be given to the crisis that's at hand. 100,000 people are dead. 100,000. That's 5 times the number of people that go to my school. And the area of devastation is huge, too. I know we've seen huge disasters in the United States in the last decade, but just seems like it's so much bigger. Any help that these people might have to survive is either being flown in from another country or it's already dust.

I know that we're busy and we've got our own problems. We've got a lot of politics going on, and a lot of problems with our economy. We have people without health care and without jobs. We have very needy people right here in the United States. And that may not even include all of the anxieties and challenges we encounter in our own, personal lives. But when 100,000 people die, I feel like the response should be, "What can I do to help?" instead of "*shrug* Wow, that's terrible." I know that there are a lot of people doing what they can to help out, and I'm very thankful for them. But I just wish more people would pause from their daily lives in the US, where everything is actually pretty good, and take a second to help others that really need it, even if they're not in your country. Even if they died in a natural disaster instead of a terror attack. Even if they're poor.

All I ask is that we all take a moment to realize how good we really have it and take our talents and blessings and use them to aid those in dire need.