EXCESSIVE FEELINGS?
Off hand, I cannot recall a time in my memory when public sentiment seems to have been so deeply aroused by events of the day as with the current tsunami disaster.
Those times which do seem to equate with it are all of a nationalistic, restricted nature - such as Pearl Harbor Day, D-Day or the Moon Landing, when American's responded with exceptional shows of feelings of a patriotic nature.
The “Tsunami of 04-05”, as must eventually be called since it is a continuing thing - with strong aftershocks still being felt in some areas, plus new realizations of additional loss of life and property.
It is far from being ended.
Consider some of the strange things which have happened during the past week.
An earthquake takes place far from our shores in the Indian Ocean and our our advanced communications systems brought the actual visual horror of it, with special impact, into our homes and we came to realize rather bluntly that we were faced with a tremendous force and uncontrollable power in this strange explosion in our Earth's plates under the usually rather placid waters of the Indian Ocean just south of India and west of the coast of Malaysian. In all, before it will have ended, at least eleven nations of people will have suffered heavy property damage and each has steadily growing lists of dead, missing or injured. The economic base of most of those nations has been stripped away, shattered and dependent entirely on outside assistance. It was evident that such help must be prompt and plentiful – well beyond even exceptional bounds.
It has been heartening to be even just a small part of the emotional response to the need of this special ordeal. The response has come from individuals who have made exceptional contributions, commercial and industrial, even a show of some nations attempting to outdo others and finding it difficult to overcome past grievances real or imagined.
This can be seen as a special time of evaluation for many of Mankind's contrived arrangements called governments, unions, associations, denominations, types, kinds or divisions of all kinds.
Can we, indeed, work together, for the common good of all?
A.L.M. January 5, 2005 [c384wds]
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