Compassion: Awareness in Action

Compassion is the word of the day with many people and nations giving any help they can to the life and death needs of thousands of people caught in destruction's path, on Haiti. Even if that island had little interest to most people before the tragic earthquake hit, few can ignore it now.
The suffering of the men, women and children calls out like a compelling wave of need.

Our feelings of sympathy are so encompassing that we must react. Setting aside normally pressing matters, we do all that we can to bring help to those caught in the vise of immediate need. Haitians' means to help themselves have been severely damaged anywhere near Port-au-Prince. Each child's scream tells of the minutes left to help that one.

Helpless without usual emergency gear, a translator with a news crew on the spot put his own life in danger to go into the rubble, crawl over dead bodies, to bring out a little toddler while she is still alive. Miraculously, both the hero and the precious little girl emerged from the heavy crumbled debris. She looked in shock, but soon responded to a familiar relative with a kiss on the cheek. Had the islander hero not acted with his compassion, the girl would probably have died by nightfall. Even the brave emergency workers accessed the situation as too dangerous to try. He said he had babies of his own, and "you do what you can do , even if it costs your own death, to help the babies when they cry out in danger".

Compassion is a selfless force that answers the call. When need is great and the threat is obvious, some of us hear the call and must dive into danger ourselves to help. Each person has needs that he or she will hear. Each person has their own level of ability to respond, differing assets to mobilize for help. Some have money they can send to others who have needed training and equipment to help. Some train just for such emergencies. Some have neither money nor training, but they send love and pray for best outcome for all concerned.

All of those reactions come from awareness, compassion for those in need. We celebrate the actions and prayers of all well-meaning people in this time of our neighbor's calamity. We wish all the little children could find adoptive homes and families. We hope some places can be found for all survivors as close to their cultural norm as possible. We pray for a special help to all those who are there in the dangerous situation to make the best out of life for those who survive. The need is overwhelming. May they find peace with doing whatever they can in such adverse circumstances.
Many there are grieving and in shock. The aftershocks of earthquake are still happening, so there is fear. Lack of food brings anger. I pray for help. I pray for grace to get what is needed to all survivors and all rescue workers, and news crews. All have a part in this life-threatening time and place. All deserve whatever our compassion and circumstance allows us to send.

In a few days, I will blog about a much more subtle destructive force that is easier to ignore, but nonetheless, running rampant in our land: children ignored and unhelped whose lives are severely damaged by that lack of understanding of those near and far from them. Many of our own children are left unhelped and become at-risk to fail, situationally disabled. We will look at how we can help them. Depriving children of the ability to read, and comprehend simple directions is a serious matter. Awareness of the deprivation and its lifelong handicap is an issue we also need to address out of our compassion. See live link at right side of this page for our Literacy for Tykes Main Website for info on our local kids in need.