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Suffering a Bad Case of Disaster Fatigue Another Week, Another

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Suffering a Bad Case of Disaster Fatigue Another Week, Another Suffering a Bad Case of Disaster Fatigue Another week, another disaster and another opportunity for us to put our money behind our stated devotion to tikkun olam, or repairing the world. But there’s a sense that we’ve all hit disaster overload and that no matter how deep we dig into our pockets, we can’t find anything else to give. Between the tsunamis that lashed Asia and Africa in December and Hurricane Katrina’s tormenting of the Gulf Coast in late August, the U.S. private sector has contributed some $4 billion for relief. As President Bush noted in discussing aid for Katrina relief, the Jewish community has done more than its share in response to those disasters. But the disasters just keep coming. When Hurricane Rita slid far enough north to spare Houston, the nation breathed a sigh of relief, at least in part because we knew the gasoline would keep flowing. Meanwhile, the Lake Charles area of southwestern Louisiana was devastated. Did we even notice? When Hurricane Stan smashed through Central America, the flooding and mudslides may have killed more people in Guatemala alone than Katrina killed on the Gulf Coast. How many people around here even know there was a Hurricane Stan? When Hurricane Wilma set the Atlantic record for the lowest pressure recorded in a hurricane, we spent the next week watching and worrying about the effects on the high- priced real estate of southern Florida. As the Yucatan suffered under Category 4 rain and winds for two days, we got stories about the suffering of the tourists in Cancun, then about the Mexicans looting. Didn’t we learn any lessons from New Orleans? When a record earthquake flattened parts of Pakistan and shook up India and Afghanistan in early October, we watched in horrified fascination as rescuers searched for survivors for days. As the death toll kept rising — estimates have topped 80,000 — it became too much to comprehend, so we didn’t try. How many of us have given a thought to the plight of millions of survivors as winter moves into the Pakistani mountains? Go to the Web sites for the Orthodox Union, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Union for Reform Judaism. You can find links on the home pages for relief for Katrina and Rita. But don’t bother looking for Stan or the earthquake. Locally, a link for Katrina donations still holds a prominent spot atop the Marcus Jewish Community Center’s Web site (www.atlantajcc.org), while Federation has bumped hurricane relief in favor of its own Campaign for Community Needs at www.shalomatlanta.com. Meanwhile, Muslim organizations have rallied to set up relief funds, complete with online donation options, to help Pakistan. Yes, Pakistan is a Muslim country. There’s no particularly Jewish interest there — except for the overriding principle to protect life. The same principle applies in Christian Central America, where the Hollywood big shot we love to hate after “Passion of the Christ,” Mel Gibson, has stepped up to donate $1 million. (It’s worth noting that Israel was quick to offer help to Pakistan and that Pakistan was slow to accept the aid, which it insisted must pass through a third party. Sometimes it’s not easy to help people.) This column isn’t about guilt. It’s too soon after Yom Kippur to lay guilt trips, and we as a community keep giving all we can to help the Gulf Coast, to the extent that we didn’t have as much to give to the Operation Isaiah food drive. It’s just a reminder that the hard work of tikkun olam is never done. .
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