Thoughts Rumbling Around

I am fascinated by how individual thoughts rumble around inside my head. Sometimes they inadvertently find each other and come together to form a new and deeper perception of the world around me. But sometimes an event way outside of my own little world propels them into each other, creating a massive collision and I have no alternative but to wake up and pay attention.

Last weekend a friend and I were having a typically light-hearted conversation about how in our teaching experiences the good kids don't seem to rub off on the bad ones but the opposite often does occur. There's something about the socialization of young children, that if you have a group of well-behaved 4 or 5 year-olds and insert one not so well behaved, the angels will very quickly start experimenting with the language and actions of the devil. It almost never happens the other way around. Why is that? Why are we humans, even such young ones, so tempted by being bad? So there is thought #1.

Thought #2 comes from a reminder from the book, Stones Into Schools, of the number of children that were killed in the earthquake in Pakistan because of poorly constructed schools and now the criminal collapse of hundreds of buildings in Haiti killing tens of thousands of people. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would find value in the American system of building codes. But that is exactly where my thinking led today.

Evidently humans cannot do something simply because it is the right thing to do. We have to have rules to follow. Just as young children seem to choose being bad over being good, so do builders and the government that controls them. Add to the mix, corruption and greed and there is no turning back. There are many pieces of our building code that are just plain silly but in my book, silly trumps death any day.

The visual images of Haiti's desperate and pervasive poverty have torn my heart apart for years. And now to watch in living color with commentary, the death and destruction that has occurred because of a country's reckless abandon of concern for the safety of its own people, I am besought with confusion. I have always had trouble understanding evil in the world but this must be it in the flesh. And we as Americans are not blameless. We have bankrolled and turned our backs on the corruption in that country for decades.

Day after day the death count continues with no end in sight. I wait for it to get better, to heal itself. Money is coming in and supplies are purchased. But just like every other disaster, they are not delivered to those in need. Concerns are expressed that people will riot when the supplies are distributed. So we wait. For what? The potential rioters to die of thirst, I suppose.

My deepest hope at this point is that the money that is being generated can be the agent of change. We cannot allow that money into the hands of the current corrupt government with no strings attached. It is the only possible ray of hope in this entire debacle, that out of death will come life. A new Haiti. A Haiti where a child will be born and loved, not sold. A Haiti where children will be educated and contribute to the global future. A Haiti where poverty is history. A Haiti where the government redefines itself as caretakers not murderers of its own people.

We as humans, must stop turning our backs on these countries in turmoil. This chain of events has happened too many times. We know that it's going on, whatever it is. We feel sad. All hell breaks loose and then suddenly we are ready to fix the problem with money, doctors, aid, and anything else our money will buy. I am so grateful that there are people throughout the world that are willing to stop their lives and run to the aid of those in need; the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF. For the first time this morning, I wished it could be me.

At the crux of it all remains that question of good vs evil. Small children struggle with it at a sub conscious level but as adults, there must certainly be a clear knowledge regarding the end result of the decisions we make. When we shortcut building construction out of disrespect for safety, someone, sometime is going to suffer for it. They are going to die. The visual images of human bodies buried in the rubble of collapsed buildings must be emblazoned on the minds of those responsible for building the new nation of Haiti.