So many lives...

Tsunami hits Indian ocean nations and kills over 100,000 people….

It sounds just like any other news headline if you say it quickly enough. Over one hundred thousand people lost their lives…and the numbers are still climbing as I write this. We, here in America, just go on about our daily activities. Many of us haven’t even stopped to take notice because it hasn’t affected us.

Most of the people killed were the poorest in already poor countries. The poor don’t have the material possessions that Americans and Western Europeans have been blessed with. What they have…had…were families. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, grandparents...that’s what the survivors lost. Sometimes the only thing that makes poverty bearable is family…and that was taken away from thousands and thousands of people in only a few hours.

The loss is incomprehensible to me. To those who survived the loss it was their child or their parent, perhaps their neighbor, perhaps all of those. It was personal. I can only think of the quote by John Donne: “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."

I don’t have the ability to help any victims of this cataclysm directly…but the survivors are in my prayers. I take note that humanity has lost a great deal in the last few days. They’re not strangers or aliens to me…they’re human beings, made in the image of the Living God…they’re part of my family. My heart goes out to my family. May the hand of the Most High bless and comfort His children. May He heal the hearts, bodies and spirits of those left behind...eventually. May we open our hearts and our purses to our family in their time of need. Humanity has the opportunity to show it's heart in this too. May we all stop and take note that the bell tolls…

Well in Europe they say...

After listening to the talking heads on TV, my little sister who went to school in Switzerland, and a neighbor who lived in Belgium for far too many years… I’m a little put off by the weight some people keep putting on the opinions of ‘Europeans’ about the goings on here in the US. Most of the branches of my family came to this country before it was the United States. My ancestors fought the British in the Revolutionary War. The fact is that all my ancestors came from Europe at one time or another. They left countries were they were persecuted for their religious beliefs or where they had no futures because of the crushing weight of poverty thanks to the cultures ‘Europeans’ developed. Our ancestors came here and founded the greatest country in the history of the world!

This nation has poured out it’s money, it’s sweat and the blood of it’s young men to free the oppressed peoples in every corner of the world…including ‘Europe’. In fact if not for the selfless service of hundreds of thousands of Americans the ‘Europeans’ would all be speaking German today! And after soundly thrashing the Germans in the field we paid to rebuild their country and to rebuild the countries that they had pounded into the dirt…and then forgave the debts!

We’ve provided a military umbrella to shield the Europeans from the threat of Communism for almost fifty years and the ‘Thanks’ we get is to be snubbed and told we don’t do enough in the United Nations!! We started the United Nations! We put the headquarters on our soil and let most of its’ members get away with breaking the laws of their host country. We have footed the bill for most military and humanitarian actions that have served to make the world a better place and all while the ‘Europeans’ look down their noses on us!

I say let’s leave the Iraqis alone, go to war with Europe and make them all learn English! They need a lesson in respect since they haven’t learned anything from the lessons of history!