My heart really goes out to all of the people who were affected by the series of twisters that have utterly devastated everything in their path across the South and Midwest of the United States in recent weeks. The most deadly of them hit Joplin, Missouri on Sunday, killing over 120 and bringing the total number of dead from this unprecedented series to over 400.
You’ve probably seen pictures of the devastation these twisters left in their wake. Hollywood could not manufacture such scenes.
When I saw them I was seized with the thought that this was even worse than the devastation the Haitian earthquake left in its wake.
Which might lead one to think that Mother Nature expresses her wrath indiscriminately. Except that she killed not 400 but as many as 400,000 in Haiti.
Of course, I do not mean to diminish the loss those affected by these twisters are suffering. For I have no doubt that these Americans feel their loss just as intensely as the Haitians did.
All the same:
Earthquakes and other natural disasters should always remind us that there but for the grace of God… But there’s no denying that living in a relatively rich country increases one’s chance of surviving and recovering from such disasters tremendously…
It’s bad enough that accident of birth can consign one to a life of chronic poverty. It just seems unfair that even the wrath of Mother Nature affects the poor so disproportionately.
(Killer earthquakes: First Haiti, now Chile, The iPINIONS Journal, March 2, 2010)
Apropos of recovering from such disasters, here is what President Obama promised those affected:
I want everybody in Joplin, everybody in Missouri, everybody in Minnesota, everybody across the Midwest to know that we are here for you. The American people are by your side. We’re going to stay there until every home is repaired, until every neighborhood is rebuilt, until every business is back on its feet.
(The Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2011)
Obama will follow up his words with a presidential visit on Sunday.
In the meantime, it is almost impossible for those of us watching on TV to experience the pathos these twisters should evoke with reporters providing real-time reports on them as if they were reporting on a sporting event.
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Killer earthquakes…