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The Cyclone, Tornados and China’s Earthquake: Are We Desensitized to Tragedies?
By Julie | May 14, 2008
I think our media, society, our country and maybe even our world, have become desensitized to tragedy. Possibly because we’ve seen so much in recent years: The Oklahoma City Bombing, Columbine, 9-11, the 2004 tsunami, Katrina (if your volume is up, this site has back ground music).
The last week has brought more: the cyclone, tornados through the US, and a devastating earthquake in China. I’ve heard a little about each of these events. Then the news switches back to whether Hillary should give up. Oh, but look, she just won in West Virginia! Yippee. Is she back in? No offense Hillary and Barack, but a lot of people have died in this week. We need to reach people who may die if they don’t get food. I think their lives are more newsworthy and, at the moment, more important, than what you may or may not do.
Yesterday MSNBC reported there are at least 22,000 people dead from the cyclone in Myanmar. 41,000 people are still missing, and 1 million are homeless. Aid is being offered to help feed people and rebuild homes. Though, the Myanmar government has previously tried to take care of things without assistance. Many feel they should allow more aid to come into their country, and that is not arriving fast enough.
As reported here, “more then 60 tornados recently carved a path of destruction from the Midwest to the East coast leaving destruction and fatalities in their wake” Monday, CNN reported at least 22 people are dead from the storms. Houses, towns, communities and probably people have been destroyed. Sure, the tornados didn’t cause as many deaths. But, they happened on our own country, to our fellow citizens. But it doesn’t seem to get much notice. (Go Hillary! Come on Barack!)
Today the death toll in China’s earthquake rose to 15,000. At that time, “nearly 60,000 people were still missing near the quakes epicenter in Sichuan province.” Officials said, “Entire towns in the area had been razed to the ground, and left without a single house standing.” From the article:
178 children from one school were found dead, buried in rubble while they were napping.
Just under 19,000 people are believed to have been buried under debris in Mainyang.
Regardless of whether Hillary stays in the race, and beats Barack, today, they both have food and a home.
I remember after the Oklahoma City bombing it seemed to be the only news. Columbine was covered on all media sources: TV, radio, Internet, newspaper and magazine. Did we even pause to notice there have been at least a dozen school shootings in the past three years resulting in more than 50 deaths? Until I read that, I didn’t remember so many, did you? The shooting, on Valentines Day, in Illinois was barely mentioned on the news earlier this year. All non-news programs ceased to air in this country of over a week after 9-11. That day, I didn’t work at work. We stayed glued to the TV and Internet, and compared notes on late breaking news. Our parents’ generation answered the question, “Where were you when JFK was shot”. Our question is, and will be, “Where were you when you heard about 9-11?” I don’t want to sound callous by what I’m about to say. 9-11 was a senseless, unimaginable tragedy that changed our country forever. CNN reported that the 9-11 death toll was 2973. Again, these were senseless deaths that should NEVER have taken place. But this is nowhere near the nearly 50,000 people dead in three tragedies in the last week; with predictions the death toll will raise to be much, much higher.
It’s vital for people to carry on, and not let tragedy stop us from living. But shouldn’t they also give us compassion to help? Have we seen so much in the past few years that now we hardly notice when people are left shot in a school, or homeless and could starve to death if someone doesn’t take notice? I know the election is important, but when thousands of people are dead, or trapped under rubble, and have no idea if they’ll eat today (or tomorrow) and when they’ll have a home, shouldn’t the news focus a little more on that? Because if we get too good at moving forward, what are we leaving behind? People to die? If so, what if we’re next?
Topics: In the News | 3 Comments »
May 15th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
You bring up some really good points, and I would have to agree with you. Of course politics and the election this year is huge and I think the media thinks it’s some big pow-wow and needs to be aired 24/7. However I personally don’t think so. I think the media needs to cover more of the big stories and the tragedies longer and not just flip the switch and go back to the democratic race.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I couldn’t agree more. It’s gotten so bad, I feel like we’re on the verge of hearing what the candidates had for breakfast each day. The election is important, but I think the media is on overkill.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:46 am
Years ago there was a popular sheet spread by fax(I believe it predated wide spread e-mail. It covered negative predictions made by presidential candidates about their opponents. All of these predictions came true except the candidate making the negative prediction was the winner. Sometimes it doesn’t make that much difference who wins the elections.Things have to be done even if they may be politically unpopular.