It's 9/11 All Over Again

It's 9/11 all over again. Hold your family close. Reevaluate what's truly important in life. Feel that powerful sensation of your fellow citizens coming together as one beating heart, and seek comfort from this shock by gathering with friends to share your grief.

Or just skim the headlines and move on with your day. It's your call.

Such is the choice presented by the latest news: Drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 in the last 90 days.

Like 9/ll, it's a senseless, unnecessary and tragic loss of innocent life. Unlike 9/11, it doesn't affect most of us, does it?

I remember, in the weeks following 9/11, hearing over and over how nothing would ever be the same again. The world had changed. Why is the world not changing now?
~ from Children Are Dying in a Famine as We Go on Blithely About Our Lives by T.D. Mischke ~

It is sobering to realize that we're talking about nearly 10 times the death toll of 9/11 and yet few Americans even bat an eye! At most, a few of us will mutter, "Oh, that's terrible" and then go on with our day. I am as guilty of this as anybody else.

After 9/11, the world grieved along with us. People the world over sent us heartfelt condolences and prayed for the many victims and their families. This unspeakable horror touched people far and wide.

What does it say about American society when we only are able to muster compassion and sympathy when avoidable tragedies happen on our soil or they happen to people who look and live like we do? There was an outpouring of American sympathy after blond haired, blue-eyed Norwegians senselessly were gunned down, but who is crying for the children of Somalia?