To say the flooding of Midwest cities along the Mississippi has wrought significant damage is an understatment. Thousands of residents are displaced, thousands of homes are ruined. Levees are falling, rendered ineffective. Crops are ruined.
Dorrie and I were talking about this yesterday. "I feel lucky that we have jobs," she said. "I feel lucky that we have homes." The reality of her words hit me hard, and all I could say in reply was a meaningless "Yeah." Here I am, sitting in my office, blessed to have a great job and a habitable home, while the tragedy of the floods seemed distant and foreign. It's on the TV, and that's as close as it will get.
President Bush got close today. He visited Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. He met people. He listened. He said the government will help immediately to the extent that it can. And that's as close as he got.
Lashawn Baker was there, cleaning her flooded home in a southwest Cedar Rapids neighborhood. She was close. Close enough to be unimpressed by President Bush's visit.
"I really don't have much of an opinion of his coming,"
she told The Associated Press. "It took him a long time to get to New Orleans and he didn't help any of those people, so I don't think he's going to do anything to help Cedar Rapids now that he's here."
The American Red Cross is there, but
it needs help, too. Its disaster relief fund is nearing empty, and they are in need of about $15 million to cover "the approximately 30 disasters that have occurred in the past two months," including the floods.
I have my own worries -- gas prices and student loans -- but why can't I help? Just because I'm not close doesn't mean I'm not capable. People are losing what's important to them, yet I have what's important to me and am still afraid to help. I don't understand.
How do you make sense of tragedy? How do you make it affect you when it doesn't affect you? It is sad for a while and then you go back to work, go back home, go back to the flood effect, of being submerged in your life.
One person can't do everything, and we each have our own responsibilities, our own problems, our own worries and fears. But people need help. They are facing extreme difficulty right now and they have lost much and I can't necessarily relate to that. But I am made of flesh and they are, too, and when I remember that, that our hearts beat together and our lungs take the same air with souls of one source, then I am closer. Close enough to see, close enough to help.
-Christopher Zabka