In 2005, I had an opportunity to work closely with the victims of Hurricane Katrina. While talking with many of the people who had been housed at the Superdome, I was quickly made aware of the atrocities that human beings can commit against one another. One person told me that groups of men were waiting inside the women’s restrooms and brutally and repeatedly raped anyone who entered. Another person spoke of a man who flew into a sudden rage and killed a woman’s baby when he picked the infant up and threw it to the ground. Such actions are tough to read (and write) about, but they bring light to a truth about our own humanity, or lack thereof. Unfortunately, often times a large natural disaster precedes an even larger human disaster.
In the wake of Japan’s monstrous earthquake and tsunami, I am truly fascinated by the Japanese’s reaction and visible difference in behavior to a similar set of circumstances. Even in our modern and civilized society, their behavior and reaction seems almost odd or unique. The people of Japan are exercising humaneness, compassion and dignity at a time when most cultures fall apart. I have heard people are sharing their own limited supply of food and making personal sacrifices to ease the pain of others. There seems to be a genuine concern for the wellbeing of strangers, perhaps because to the Japanese, there are no strangers.
Six years ago, I was made sober to the reality of people letting their individual egos act out in violence. Today, I am inspired to deepen my commitment to my own personal code of ethics and morals. Perhaps the only difference between order and chaos, between horror and humanity, and between life and death is found in the principles that guide the heart of the individual.