Because of the tragedy in Japan, I turned on television news tonight. The comments of a reporter underscored for me why I rarely watch these programs. "Is America in danger?"
Of, for the love of pete, can nothing happen without it being about "us?"
Yes, I understand a little of the dynamics of underwater earthquakes and that the shock wave of any underseaquake, the tsunami, will travel through the water until it makes landfall. It's as if the earth roughly did a kind of underwater swimming pool cannonball but instead of the airborne splash from the shock of the sudden water displacement, the shock waves caused the 'ripple' to slosh up over the edges of any land surrounding the Pacific. Typical for water. But little happened here. California, Oregon and Washington are safe. So is the rest of "America." Until the shock wave sloshed on this side of the Pacific, concern was legitimate, but the wave had already passed by the time I heard the reporter late tonight.
Japan suffered devastation not seen outside of Hollywood apocalypse movies. The speeding water swept away livelihoods and lives. The tsunami destroyed people, fieldmice, cats, dogs, cars, trucks, boats, houses, fields, farms, roads and towns. The six-miles-invading waves drowned the land. And a reporter -- national level -- asks if "America" is in danger.
What a narcissistic reaction.
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