Horrible events test human resilience
Soldiers urge an elderly woman to move to higher ground during a tsunami warning Monday in Fukushima prefecture, Japan, three days after the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast coast. Credit: AP
The bad news started on Friday, with a massive earthquake off the coast of Japan followed by a devastating tsunami. As the weekend wore on, the catastrophic extent of the destruction began to emerge. The presumed death toll quickly soared into the thousands. A crisis soon erupted at some Japanese nuclear power facilities, where plant operators struggled to avoid meltdowns.
On Saturday morning, closer to home, a tour bus flipped over on the New England Thruway at the Bronx-Westchester border and was ripped apart by a sign stanchion. The horrific accident has claimed 15 lives so far.
And then tragedy struck closer still. In Massapequa Park, a resident called 911 because a young man brandishing a knife was jumping on the hood of her car. Police killed him in his home. But when a Nassau County special operations officer arrived to provide backup, he, too, was shot dead -- by a Metropolitan Transportation Authority cop.
All in all, it was a weekend filled with sorrowful news reminding us of the fragility of human life, and the extent to which even the best precautions can't always protect us. It pays to prepare for natural disasters such as earthquakes, just as it pays to invest in training police officers and monitoring bus safety. But no matter how hard we try, we can't foresee or avert every disaster.
The chaos and tragedy that have darkened recent days illustrate the terrible unpredictability of life. In the Nassau officer's death, MTA police had been summoned to the nearby railroad station on an unrelated matter. When they heard about the knife-wielding suspect on the police radio, they drove over to back up fellow officers -- motivated by the very best of intentions.
In Japan, meanwhile, a nation that has taken earthquake preparation seriously for a long time, hardly anyone thought a quake so severe could occur in that area -- and so the magnitude of the tsunami came as a shock too.
Our hearts go out to the people of Japan, as well as to those who lost loved ones here in the New York area. We can only seek solace in the knowledge that good things crop up unexpectedly as well -- human charity, for instance. After such a terrible weekend, we could all use a few positive surprises.
