All Posts Tagged With: "assistance"

We in the United States are devastated by the loss of American lives in Katrina (3000+), Iraq (4000+) and the 9/11 attacks (3000+).

Despite our many faults, including those of government at many levels and at the individual level, we as a country seriously try to value and protect the individual lives of our citizens in ways no other large and diverse country has achieved let along tried. We allocate significant amounts of money and other resources at all levels of government with the attempt to improve and preserve our safety.

The devastation and loss of life in China due to recent earthquakes and by cyclones in neighboring Myanmar (Burma) are difficult for this writer to fathom. Numbers of maybe a 100,000 deaths in each country are being fore casted by those who really do not know but these are their best guesses due to the difficulties of saving and tending to the living.

I for one am proud of the immediate offers of aid and the follow up on those offers by many sources from inside America, including our government, individuals and numerous aid and medical organizations permitted by our freedoms to do so. That China will allow in US help is a step forward in their approach to opening up their country to outsiders even more than recent steps, both big and tentative.

Myanmar unfortunately remains one of those countries ruled by small numbers of powerful people so that no matter what form of government these countries seems to have, their citizens enjoy far less freedoms than we take for granted everyday.