This last week while the birther controversy and Donald Trump jumped the shark, and a Royal Wedding distracted the media, we had the worst death toll in recent history from tornadoes. These massive storms cut a swath through the Deep South. The devastation and the tragedy is all the more incomprehensible since we now have far better radar technologies and warning systems in place. Yet, despite all our advancements, the storms popped up so quickly and were so intense that over 300 people died.
The death toll from this week’s tornadoes continued to climb Saturday morning, making the storms fueled by record winds the second worst in history.
As the rescue and relief efforts continued through much of seven states, officials braced for what was being called a humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people remained without power; usable water was in demand. In hard-hit Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama decided to end the school year early.
The Alabama Emergency Management Agency on Saturday morning reported that the state’s death toll has risen to 254, pushing the region’s total to more than 340. Mississippi and Tennessee each reported 34 deaths. Fifteen deaths were reported in Georgia, five in Virginia, two in Louisiana and one in Kentucky.
It was the deadliest storm toll since March 18, 1925, when 747 people were killed in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. The current numbers were expected to grow as would-be rescuers combed through rubble and debris.
In 1925 we had no radar, no television, no warning systems comparable to what we have today. So those deaths are somewhat understandable, even though the population was less. Today, however, we rarely hear of huge death tolls from tornado outbreaks thanks to modern advances and systems put in place by the Federal government to provide people with adequate warning of the impending threats posed by these storms of mass destruction.
Until this week.
I’m not going to discuss the role a warming globe may have payed in the fierce storms we are seeing the last few years. I’ve done that story before. No, today I write merely to acknowledge the deaths of our fellow Americans and the horrific conditions in which those who survived find themselves.
Sometimes, on blogs, both right and left, it is easy to demonize people who disagree with us. Yet whether the people of the South were members of the Tea Party or progressives, whether they were white or black, whether they were decent, loving and caring people, or people whose prejudices inform their hatred of others, all of them are human being deserving our respect, our concern for their well being and our help.
For those who died we should all mourn. John Donne, the famous English metaphysical poet and devotional writer, said this in his well known Meditation XVII, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions which speaks for me and I hope for you as well:
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
No one is an island in today’s world. What affects one of us affects us all. Death and the ruination of lives anywhere on this globe should pain us all, even, or perhaps especially the misery of those with whom we are engaged in conflicts, religious, political, racial, ideological or otherwise.
In such times of grief and despair that follow catastrophes, it is important to remember that we are all part of the same humanity that suffers, the strives, that hopes and dreams for a better life. It is not for us to judge the living or the dead. Nor should we allow our own stereotypes and prejudices and beliefs to dismiss the misfortune of those with whom we may disagree or oppose in the political realm.
It should not be our reaction to such misery to sit back, basking in schadenfreude, enjoying the tragedy that has befallen others that we may wrongly assume do not deserve our assistance because they are not like us. We do not know those who died, or the lives that they and the survivors of this tragedy led, nor their beliefs, religions, races, sexual orientations or the balance of good and bad deeds they may have committed, but we should not condemn them.
I know that it is a common enough flaw to blame victims for their misfortune. We have seen this reaction from certain people before who dismissed the tragedy of Katrina or the deaths of those in Haiti, Pakistan or elsewhere out of spite or malice. Yet it is morally wrong to do so.
The Buddha said: “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.”
Jesus said: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.”
Mohammed said: “A man’s true wealth is the good he does in this world.”
Let us put away any hatred we may feel and express our love. Let us bring out the good things we keep stored in our heart and not the evil. Let us find the wealth that only our good deeds can bring forth. Our brothers and sisters who died in Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee deserve our grief and those who still live, yet suffer deprivation from the loss of family, friends and basic services, deserve our help.
Go to the following links to find organizations to whom you can donate to assist the victims of these horrendous tornadoes if you are able:
Sweet Home — Help Alabama Storm Victims
If you know of other charitable organizations who are providing relief or accepting volunteers to aid the victims of these storms please leave a link in the comments.
Thank you.
Steven D
