Tales from the Steppes

2004-12-29

9:40 a.m.
At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade, And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy

I was going to write a bit of a roundup of the last week but right now I am a bit too stunned to do so. The sheer magnitude of the loss the world has suffered overshadows any sort of joy that the season has brought. We bitch and moan about our little problems but I am pretty sure that a wall of water travelling at 500 mph would nullify most of them. Kind of puts things into a bit of perspective - whole families destroyed, nations that may have been struggling to begin with brought to their knees.

What is even more amazing to me is our government's pathetic response to this incredible tragedy. Instead of mobilizing our resources to help out, we have offered a paltry $35 million. I know it does not sound like so little but it really is. The cost of the war in Iraq has been over $100 billion and has gotten us not bloody much. We now have a destabilized Middle East and more people on the planet that hate us. Not to mention all of the people who have died in the conflict on both sides. What would happen if we used a fraction of that money to help out the thousands of injured and homeless people in southeastern Asia? Even if we cannot find it in ourselves to be merely altruistic, how about seeing it as a way to regain some international goodwill? We could go back to being the good guys instead of bullies.

Even more depressingly, our "compassionate conservative" president cannot even seem to bestir himself on his vacation to even make a statement. Perhaps of there were major oil reserves or a bad guy to take out, he might be a little more interested.