Mother Nature, Allah, God … it does not matter what you call the power around us, but we have been sent a reminder of the vastness of that power. And it should serve as a wake up call to our leaders and indeed ourselves.

You see, it has proven that our own ability to destroy pales in comparison, and that the human spirit can absorb and overcome such a tragedy. It serves as a reminder how weak and fragile we are as individuals in such a disaster, but how strong we are when we work together in such times. And it is a timely reminder…

You, the “leaders” out there, yes you know who you are. Fate has given you responsibility for the lives (and deaths) of many. These events hopefully show you that deceit, death and destruction used to promote your goals simply creates misery that begets more hatred and continues a cycle of senseless destruction. If you want to take the moral high ground then by all means do so. But realize you take that ground by treating your enemy, as you want to be treated, and how you want your family to be treated. You do so by asking of you and your family the same as you ask from those you lead. You do so by sticking to your ideals in the means you take, and not hold them up only as an end point.

And for the rest of us, this disaster is a wake up call as well. We have the responsibility to call our own leaders to task. We must speak out when we see them failing to promote a better world. We cannot let then shirk their responsibility, or allow them to hide atrocities within idealism. Nor can we let them scamper away from working together to make the world better by saying that such a goal is “too idealistic”, “naïve” or imply it is somehow “wimpy”. Making the world a better place is hard and difficult work. And it is work that is not done yet.

Waking up in a world with the death of 150,000 people is a tragedy. But the world will pull together to overcome. A much bigger tragedy is not learning enough to stop killing each other. Maybe it is too idealistic to say “we must find a way to get along,” but I will continue to have and pursue my ideals. I hope our “leaders” and you will too…
A Madman has spoken…