Desensitize America

You hear it on the news almost every day; people shot, homes lost, mother nature strikes back, the horror! I've heard it so much and seen it so often that it's hard for me to feel much. Am I alone in this lack of emotion? I'd like to think not.

Recently I've been watching Madmen and I've noticed that during the JFK assassination, as well as the MLK assassination, people were deeply upset about the events. The tragedy hit them all personally. Why have the times changed so much?

For the longest time, disasters and death in the news have not compelled an ounce of emotion to work its way to my surface. Then the rain came. It was just another summer thunderstorm, moving through the area, no big deal. Wow Lightning! But for some reason, this time was different. The amount of rain created a flash flood in the little town of Clear Spring.

I spent my teen years growing up in that town. I hated that town. I hated it when we moved there and I couldn't wait to get out when I graduated high school. I didn't hate the people I knew from there, just the "there". Something about the small town environment and the lack of anything besides homes, a few stores, many liquor stores, and parks; I had no feelings for the town itself.

Like I said, "then the rain came."

I got news that the town was flooding. No big deal. I had seen the potomac river flood near my house, never did any harm (there was a cow one year that went over the dam). This time was different though. Pictures started to surface of the damage, of the once dry creek bed roaring with muddy tides of destruction. I felt something. I knew those houses, I drove past them a hundred times. Something felt familiar. I no longer hated that town. Theres one picture that shows the row of building along the main street, they had yellow papers which read "condemned". That feeling was growing stronger, until it finally broke through. I feel sorrow and pain. The feeling cannot compare to that of those who were directly affected, but I finally felt something real.

So I ask myself this, why did it take this terrible event for me to feel something? The fact that something familiar to me has been changed and destroyed has prompted me to finally feel something. It would have otherwise been just another news story, but it's not. It saddens me.

I am thankful for those that were there to help. My prayers go out to all those in Clear Spring and the surrounding area that have been affected by this.