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I'll admit that watching the death toll number constantly tick up on tv is somewhat desensitizing. What drives home the horror to me are the individual stories that are beginning to trickle out of the area, stories of people being swept away to their deaths in front of their loved ones eyes.
Human tragedy is human tragedy, whether it is inflicted by another group of human beings (Bosnia), or by some natural force (tsunami.) The fact that a natural force caused 100,000+ deaths doesn't make it an easier pill for me to swallow than if it was another genocidal massacre. I guess people have different types of coping mechanisms in these types of situations, none necessarily better than any other.
Some people may say "Ho Hum- I just don't feel it". I say, "From now on, screw Mother Nature, screw the caribou, screw the 3-Toed Purple Plumed Hoot Owl. From now on....Plunder! Plunder! Plunder! Drill for oil in the pristine, untouched corners of Alaska! Deplete the ozone layer! Dump your used motor oil down the gutter instead of taking it to a proper disposal facility! Take that Mother Nature! You'll pay.....oh yes you'll pay dearly."
She'll come around, and when she does, well...as Mr. Burns once said, "Oooh, so Mother Nature needs a favor?! Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing. Well I say, hard cheese."
She may have won the battle this time, but not the war!
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