[Current Affairs.]

A rant on the tragedies of today.

(Current affairs-- of shame, blame, wretchedness, and ... outreach.)

Somehow, I have managed to get in the routine of eating breakfast amid sobs: spoon in one hand, roll of toilet paper (my far-from-classy version of Kleenex) in the other. I do this because I've been following coverage of the crisis in Haiti surprisingly closely and seem to have become incredibly attached to the heartache represented.

In a time of such crushing trauma, how is it that any person could find it within themselves to turn against the aching souls needing help more desperately than anyone should ever have to know? How is it that one could lay blame on the victim? Tell them they actually earned this chaos, this catastrophe?

It infuriates me.

What an insanely damning notion. I do not see this conveyed message as a simple comment-- ignorant, arrogant, dehumanizing as it may be. Instead, it rattles through my imaginateion as a moment, a deed, an action-- as demolishing as the quake itself.

[I see a person, buried.

Under rubble.

Reaching out.

To you.

Your response?

You begin to turn around, slowly... thoughtfully...self-righteous and scheming.

You turn back.

Not to help.

But to stomp upon them.

Spit.

In a blind fury.]

HOW?? How is that even an option?! WHERE is your soul? Your heart? WHERE?!!!?!?!!

What a disgrace.

Traumatizing for them, for us as a nation, even for me.

The most terrifying part?

This is not the first time I've heard such a notion.

No, I've heard something similar uttered by those I've thought of highly, embraced fully.

The most trying example having been experienced in a class a few years ago.

A required class.

For future educators.

(...It's enough to make me cross myself on behalf of future generations.

May they grow to be wiser than our own.)

I remember a particular occasion occuring a few semesters back, on campus. We were to have a discussion in groups about overpopulation in the world, battling wits and one-upping arguments about the inevitability and potential solutions.

It was then that one of my challengers shared their unbridled honest opinion: that overpopulation was a problem often solved by God via natural disasters and disease.

"That's what AIDS and tsunamis are for."

My eyes bulged.

Jaw dropped.

Mind raced through endless reasons why that was the most outrageous, narcissistic, and blatantly racist thing I'd ever heard.

And then I heard those on my side completely drop their assigned stance to agree-- wholeheartedly. People I considered incredibly intelligent, admired for their insightfulness, and respected fully. Here they were, able to dismiss others so easily. Without a care, without another thought.

God gets rid of the waste.

It was traumatizing. Earth-shattering. A moment I will never forget, never forgive.

At least not today.

Not when their sentiments are being repeated on such an enormous scale. Perhaps those doing the talking now are exactly the same folks who gave my friends their misguided ideas in the first place, come to think of it.

The power these people have... it's terrifying.

The influence they hold... it could be such a good grace in this brutal world.

Instead, it's being used to inflict wounds deeper than any concrete slab could.

I am so sorry, my aching friends. I am so, so sorry for the things they have said.