My wife asked me this morning why I was watching so much of the coverage provided of hurricane Katrina. For me, it is hard to not look at what is one of the world’s greatest human tragedies. This one did not happen in some remote part of the country, it happened at our back door and it happened from a storm at one point headed right at Coral Springs.
I remember that Thursday night, a storm approaching and hearing that this innocuous tropical system would be in Coral Springs in the morning. It seemed like only moments later that the next morning time frame changed to “in a few hours”. It had not slowed and would be here shortly. Just as quickly, it turned and headed to Hollywood and then later across towards the airport I am at all day. Once again it changed direction and headed towards my friends in South Dade.
The day late after the storm had moved on through New Orleans, I had the feeling from the initial reports or lack thereof that we may have had another Andrew. With reports from the Biloxi area and then of water rising in New Orleans from a levi break, the nausea in my stomach rose. Since then, the story of human misery has continued to rise. While there may be a constant debate over separation of church and state, leader after leader prayed to God for mercy. It was amazing how that demand for separation was long forgotten when faced with God sized storms. Never had I seen leader after leader, reporter after reporter with voices cracking reflecting what they were seeing and fear of what lie ahead.
The story of a ten year old boy wandering around a relief center looking for a recognizable face hit hard on my heart. It could have been my son. I heard some people say that these people should have known better and left. Well, I think I am pretty intelligent and I stayed here during Andrew with no real personal knowledge of how it could be. Some condemn the ones who stayed for poor choice but did the children there really have a choice. Did the seniors in ill health have that much of choice as everyone became self concerned. Should we not care because they are poor and black? Could we possible imagine how we would react in that same situation. Compassion is putting ourselves in the position of others. It is feeling the pain of others. The thing we do not get is that compassion is a two way street. It often benefits us as much as others. It means we are human and looking at others as God looks at us.
The week before the storm, my concern and energy had been drained over my son being cut from a travel baseball team over petty differences with me not my son. The lack of compassion by those involved, the smallness of character, the lack of care for this child by those who I had trusted to guide him had hurt me to the quick. It took Katrina to bring back my perspective and appreciation of the human spirit and struggle.
My wife was wrong on this one. To me, everyone should be forced to watch every painful moment of coverage to remind them of their vulnerability. To see how precious life is, how valuable a bottle of water, a piece of food, the compassion of strangers. It will reorder our priorities and make us view that parking spot we fight for, that travel baseball team, that new trend, in a new light that shines from Louisiana.
