I'm hard on the media and often feel as if the world would be a better place if we just blew it all up and started over. I give CNN as much grief as any other network. But when a tragedy strikes they are always on the ground and the bring the story home. And to their credit, even their anchors report the stories with gravity and human emotion and they usually put the shallow, politics aside, at least for a little while.
Campbell Brown has been especially moved by the children in distress and has shown her feelings openly. Here's one example:
I'm sure the cynics among us think that's bathetic mawkishness. But I think it's real --- at least I had the same reaction. That story was just heartbreaking, particularly when you realize how many thousands of kids have died alone and frightened in similar circumstances in this tragedy.
It's almost beyond our capacity to feel anything after a while. I'm grateful to Brown for allowing her tears and compassion to show and remind us all to let ours show as well.
If only more talking heads in this country could move past their own limited binary thought of politics to recognize that there is no Left/Right, no Democratic/Rebublican paradigm to this story. There is only humanity and more importantly, human suffering, to which we, as fellow humans, are obligated to respond. You can donate to Haitian Relief via Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders.
Update: Lance Mannion has some typically perspicacious thoughts on this subject.