The Goodness of Humanity

We humans are an amazing lot. On our day-to-day journeys we sometimes can barely muster up enough energy to acknowledge those around us or even think of their suffering in their daily lives as we go through our own challenges.

Yet, when something on a massive scale occurs, such as Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, we come together as a race of very compassionate creatures.

I was doing laundry yesterday at a local laundromat and the TVs were tuned to CNN, which was going 24/7 with the hurricane aftermath (William Rehnquist's death was barely mentioned). While most of the coverage talked about family members looking for missing family members (with the help of Dr. Phil, who was broadcasting live from Louisiana **), there was one small segment about how several websites had cropped up to help place displaced people into new, temporary homes with families more than happy to give a clean room, hot meals, and fresh showers to people whose homes were, basically, destroyed forever.

We humans are capable of overcoming our daily issues and displaying a level of compassion unparalleled amongst the species living on this planet. Really, the only humans who seem to have lost any form of compassion or sense of humanity are the government officials who we elected to take care of us in such dire needs. Hence, the foot dragging and delays getting help to New Orleans. I wouldn't even dare think of how many lives could have been saved had the response been quicker.

Of course, like every other disaster, this will slowly fade into memory. New Orleans will be rebort. These people will get new homes and start to rebuild their lives.

Let's try and live our lives like every day we were responding to a major disaster. Let's never loose that compassion we can easily pull out of our lives when something major happens and apply it to those around us who are living their everyday normal lives.

** Dr. Phil was broadcasting for CNN talking to those who had lost their homes. At first I thought how shallow -- dumping a celebrity therapist to cheer up the masses (and later, we'll have Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson with a special "Hurricane Katrina Bayou Special!!"). But after watching Phil, I thought, if you're going to send a TV face down there, he's the best person for the job. Never once did he milk it with his regular brand of therapy. You could tell he was there as a therapist, not a celebrity. Someone who truly cared about those who were going through so much and wanted to do his part to help these people get their lives back on track.