Helpless Frustration

There are times when I feel a helpless frustration about things happening around me. I felt that way during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when inept government officials blamed the havoc not on their lack of competence but on the lack of foresight and self-reliance of the people caught in the hurricane. Get on with the relief, I shouted at the television. Worry about the finer philosophical points of responsibility when we aren't watching babies without food, adults without water, and animals dying or being separated from the people who care for them.

I'm a pragmatist. I've never particularly cared about assigning blame in a crisis. Maybe it's my British upbringing--you don't ask why, you just get on with it. But that doesn't stop me from feeling the anguish. I made donations to the Red Cross and the Humane Society for Katrina. That was really all I could do. But I still felt terrible for what was happening.

And now there are the fires in Australia. The area north of Melbourne is prone to them. It's a historical weather pattern. The intense hot winds from the interior desert sweep across the southeastern part of the country, the vegetation dies, and lightning strikes--a deadly combination. But what's happening now is unprecedented. The temperature is hovering around 120F, the winds have been howling, and the fires have spread faster than people can outrun them. Those who tried to fight the fires found the water evaporating as soon as it left the hose. Whoever stayed behind was doomed and the death toll is rising as crews get into the townships.

The most tragic part of all this, though, is that the fires have been deliberately set. This makes me ashamed that I share the planet with whoever did this. There's a $100,000 reward for information on who did it, and I hope they find them before the thousands of families who've lost loved one and homes get to them.

But equally tragic is the terrible loss of the animals. I feel for the our fellow inhabitants because they're not the ones setting the fires yet they pay the price. There's one story of a Koala named Sam who was lucky to be saved by a passing fireman and is now recovering in a wildlife refuge. It's heartwarming until you look at the estimate that 5,000 of Sam's kind have been lost, not to mention all the other creatures. Some say the animal loss will run in the millions.

I sit here in frustration yet again, thousands of miles away but just as anguished as I was over Katrina. I have to wonder what are we doing to our planet and how people can be so insensitive and unkind. As before, all I can do is make a donation to help. I've sent my contribution to the Victoria Wildlife Bush Fire fund. It won't make a huge difference but maybe if a whole bunch of us help, it may add up.

It's going to be very painful if that little koala doesn't make it. I'd like to think that this one life can go on--something like Smokey the Bear, the little bear who was rescued from a forest fire and became the symbol of the US Forest Service. Similarly, I hope that the people who've lost everything can find their own ways to go on. As John Donne said, "No man is an island." I feel their losses too.

I hate to read the newspapers these days. What rotten examples we humans continually prove ourselves to be.