There Will Come a Day

     This past week the east coast of the United States of America saw a storm like no other in its history. Hurricane Sandy came up the coast line then did something a storm rarely does. Like a predator chasing its prey, the storm veered left and took a massive toll to areas that never see a storm of this magnitude.   It was not the strength of the storm but its magnitude and location that caused so much damage.  New Jersey and Lower Manhattan saw the greatest damage and one week later the clean up has hardly begun.  
     What amazes me, no frightens me, is the lack of compassion from my fellow human beings outside of the damaged areas.  The storm was built up for days, and that alone was a factor that contributed to so little a loss of life.  The damage was massive and the cost not even measurable at this point.  I am surrounded by people who say,"that was nothing", "what was all the hype about","forecasters way over dramatized this one","can we get something else on TV besides the storm coverage". I am infuriated, at a loss for words, and yet not a bit shocked at the lack of compassion shown by my fellow Americans.  The pictures you see on TV are real!  Thousands of people displaced or homeless. 6 mile long lines for a can of gas at the few stations that can get it, just so they can get some heat.  
     It is by a mere 200 miles that this was not my hometown.  No food, no shelter, no medicine, no power, no heat, and their entire lives gone.  The most common complaint I heard all week is how this messed up Halloween because the had to change the date because of the storm!  There was no Halloween for these children and for many there will be no Thanksgiving or Christmas as well.  There lives are forever changed.  Yet I hear again, "that wasn't so bad, I slept right through it, didn't even lose a tree"! 
      I might be more understanding if I lived on the west coast.  I would not condone these remarks, but at least the distance would be a factor in the ability to understand the locations and the damage that occurred.  I am from Pennsylvania and we all grew up taking trips to NYC or summers at the beach in Jersey or Maryland.  Our own childhood memories are affected.  I understand they will rebuild and life goes on.  Right now the suffering of fellow human beings is what I can not comprehend. There seems to be no compassion left in America for major tragedies.  We have not suffered so great as a nation that we should no longer have the ability to empathize with our fellow Americans.  We have seen several horrible tragedies as a nation in recent years, but we are not in a constant state of war or famine, or disease.  There are countries who suffer so much more on a day to day basis and still look after each other.  Why then does a nation with so much to offer turn their head the other way when the trouble is just miles from their doorstep?
Disasters happen and there are no guarantees your life will not be the next one turned upside down.  How will you feel when you have nothing left and your hear a man on the street say"that wasn't so bad".