How to Help?
Michael Totten in The End of All Things sums up the strange survival guilt that I know I’ve been feeling the last few days:
If my city were flattened and I knew people in other parts of the country were carrying on as usual it would disturb me. How can you go on with your lives while we’re dying here? I suppose, though, from all outward appearances I must look to my neighbors as though I’m blissfully unaware of what’s going on now on the Gulf Coast. I’m not walking around with tears in my eyes. Maybe everyone is as rattled as I am yet, like me, they’re trying to pretend like they aren’t.
What really has been getting to me in the last 24 hours is the feeling of helplessness - of not knowing what I can do. Tsumani relief was easy - send a check. The charitable organizations will make sure it gets used right. However, New Orleans is close enough to us that survivors are coming to our city. Also, the cost levels are so different between us and other countries. If I send, say, $250, then that buys a few nights at a hotel, but these people need help not for days but months. What do we do over the long run that will make a real difference?
I know the real answer: bulk buying power of the entire US. However, when you know there are people nearby in need, a donation to the Red Cross just doesn’t seem like enough.
In the next few days, I’m sure I’ll find some way of helping that will seem beyond a “token” gesture. Those ideas usually come out of the blue when they are supposed to happen. In the meantime, I’ll have to put up with this eerie feeling of helplessness and guilt. It’s better than the ones in the middle of all of this, that’s for certain.
