Thursday, February 11, 2010

Until The Job Is Done, Baby...Until The Job Is Done.

It is hard to believe that the earthquake that hit Haiti was really only a few days ago in the grand scheme of time.

There will be that moment, well into the distant future, where someone will ask 'where were you when it hit' and, like all enormous tragedies...you will remember.

There is a lot to be said for the aid we offer during times of our own prosperity. There is even more to be said when we give more than we can truly afford. That is what we've seen in recent years. With our own economy faltering, if not downright stumbling, we have seen event after event that have been too much for us to ignore.

Is it enough to care if you also do not act? As a Catholic, my religious upbringing says no. As a person, I did not religion to be the sole reminder of that. Even the least of us has a responsibility to ensure the greater good.

Without this basic concept of empathy being a well-developed part of our consciousness, we are no better than the most under-developed of the animal kingdom.

Natural disasters have no emotion. They show no pity and they spare no particular caste of people. They destroy, because it is the only thing they know how do to.

It is always left to those who live in the affected area to provide the most immediate response to an emergency, and then it is up to the rest of us to offer additional support. It can be through donations of food, money, clothes or time.

It can also be something as simple as spreading the word. Too often, people do not know how to help, so the idea of 'spreading knowledge' is an important, if over-looked, necessity.

How long do we help or how long do we care? As one women in Chicago recently told her son, whose grandparents are in Haiti and in need of help...we do it until the job is done, baby, until the job is done.