If those words were used of Burma or Kenya or Madagascar or Indonesia people would be clamoring to get aid and assistance to them. But, since it’s Iowa, a strange and profound silence pervades. Where’s the truckloads of foreign aid? Where’s the international outcry for countries far and wide to offer assistance? Where’s the United Nations?
Iowa has been literally beset by disasters for the last month. Tornadoes, floods, disaster and chaos and death. But silence on the aid front.
I suppose it’s because everyone around the world imagines that America will just take care of itself. And she will. Because she must. Americans are awfully good at pitching in and helping her own. And just as good, and sometimes better, at pitching in and helping other countries. It’s a shame that the adage ‘do to others what you would have them do to you’ is practiced by Americans, but not for Americans.
2 responses so far ↓
MetaCatholic » Jim West, you bad boy // June 13, 2008 at 7:29 pm
[...] not at all convinced that having automatically generated links is a good idea. If you rant a lot, I guess you can be expected to be linked with others who rant, [...]
tim bulkeley // June 15, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Jim, if the USA was near enough to “lend a hand” we’d do it, but at this distance (like most Americans too) all we could offer is cash. So if, either most Americans had small resources (like the people of the Irawaddy delta), or if most of the USA were affected (rather than a few of the half a hundred states) I’d send my money to Iowa. But in the real world I’ll send it to Burma, not because the Burmese are nicer or better or more deserving, but because their need is hugely greater and they have fewer compatriots able to help nearby.
So, my prayers go to Iowa (apart from cash it is all I could offer from here) and China as well as to Burma, but my money goes to Burma. Let the US government prove it is better than the generals in “Myanmar” and transfer 1/2 of 1% of the annual military budget to Iowa, and see what happens.
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