Column: Compassion should precede tragedy

My eyes were dry in April. While still in shock after what happened that Monday, the news came on Wednesday that nearly 200 civilians had been killed by car bombs throughout Iraq that day. My emotion retreated from shock to numb. The largest of the explosions blew apart a group of brave construction workers who were rebuilding the market in Baghdad after the previous bombing there just two months before. Since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion four years ago, around 67,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed from direct violence—a Lane Stadium to capacity, 45 people a day on average. Ten times as many are estimated to have died in the same span from increased lawlessness, degraded infrastructure, and poorer healthcare in the nation’s weakened state.

Sadly, I noticed how little I usually care about news like this from the Middle East, but with our present loss on my mind, I was immediately connected to those on the other side of the world experiencing sudden unexplainable grief. Deep questions aroused in my soul. I thought to myself, how can I rightly cry for the people here and not the ones over there? Is it just their proximity that makes them worth my sorrow and prayers? Does the fact that death happens so much more often in other places somehow make it less painful for them? Can the terror we’ve experienced in Blacksburg be the status quo somewhere else?

Countless people are murdered every day across the globe without so much as a Facebook tribute group or a scholarship fund in their name. Most die with only a handful of relatives to mourn their passing, if that. Others are buried without ceremony in a numbered box and eulogized by their Creator alone. There are no reporters drawing attention to heartwarming details of their brief lives beyond their notoriety of receiving a sudden violent demise. They remain a faceless death tally of poor men, women, and children out of sight and out of mind. If we were to memorialize their tragedies, the Drillfield would soon be paved with Hokie stone and we’d all be out of tears.

I say none of this to detract from the mourning of the students and teachers whom we’ve lost. All lives are significant. That’s the point. I want instead to provoke some introspection on the fact that on the morning of April 16, our protective layer of economic class, intellectual privilege, and geographical distance was peeled back to expose a garish life of sorrow that masses of people around the globe experience with regularity.

Fortunately for us, in our time of crisis, the world took notice and tangibly supported Virginia Tech in ways we never could have expected. In addition to the millions who prayed and sent messages of encouragement, Michael Vick gave $10,000 to the United Way, Hershey sent three tons of maroon and orange chocolate kisses, and students gave $13,200 from the remainder of their flex meal plan dollars to the Montgomery County Community Assistance Program. Compassion responds to crisis.

Let us perpetuate a chain-reaction of generosity. I envision the Hokie Nation living out our motto “that we may serve” to help those in even greater need than ourselves. A shining example of Hokies in action is a newly formed student organization called Project Esperanza, founded in 2005 by Caitlin McHale. The non-profit group works with street kids in the Dominican Republic to create positive change both there and in the New River Valley. They work in all-inclusive community projects involving schools, local businesses, churches, organizations, and individuals.

This summer, a sacrificial student team is down there right now seeking to establish a second home for the kids to offset the load on the home they began a few years ago. The cost of the building is estimated at $165,000 and will allow for street kids age 10-20 to get out of slavery, poverty, sexual abuse and a life of violence. You can get involved at esperanzameanshope.org.

Like all of us in this town, I have been overwhelmed by the goodness of humanity to reach out to those in need. In keeping with this spirit, let’s pay it forward and make generosity a proactive way of life that doesn’t have to be jolted into gear only when disaster strikes. In the radical words of St. Paul, “Let us not be overcome with evil but overcome evil with good.”