CARLSON: Camaraderie, willingness to help as necessary in everyday life as in times of tragedy
Title
CARLSON: Camaraderie, willingness to help as necessary in everyday life as in times of tragedy
Description
By: Jay Carlson / Junior electrical engineering and mathematics major
Posted: 8/6/07
While watching the evening news this week, we heard brilliant accounts of heroism in response to the Interstate 35W bridge collapse into the Mississippi River. Many of these stories are reminiscent of the ones we heard years ago during the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It seems the citizens of this country can band together to accomplish so many things in times of national crisis and tragedy.
Yet, most of America's tragedies play to a deaf ear. People have no qualms with stepping in the way of danger when catastrophe strikes, but no one seems to be around to help save people from the smaller tragedies.
Sametta Heyward's babysitter had just canceled when Heyward was called in to start a double-shift at a county-run group home in South Carolina. Her two children, age 1 and 4, were left locked in her car for eight hours in the sweltering heat of that summer day.
After finding her unconscious, barely alive children in her car, Heyward tried her hardest to revive them by biting and kicking them.
Eventually she conceded to defeat. She quietly bathed and dressed them, then cached their bodies under the kitchen sink in garbage bags.
We as a nation need to band together to stop disasters - both big and small. It's obvious the deaths of these two small children were easily preventable.
At the bridge disaster, Gary Babineau was a lifeline to at least a dozen people he helped save. This woman had no lifeline - for a number of reasons.
Experts expect psychological testing of Heyward to show she was mentally unstable at the time.
Mental instability? This sounds gravely familiar to the April 16 shooting at Virginia Tech, where the mentally unstable Seung-Hi Cho killed 32 people and wounded 25 before ending his own life.
Of course, Heyward wasn't just mentally unstable - she was desperate, and without a babysitter, she had no choice.
As a near-socialist, I'm an advocate for universality of health care, which would include mental counseling.
Nevertheless, as citizens, we need to act in our communities and undertake the challenge of weaving a tighter bond among ourselves.
A paramount study last year from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago compared figures from 1985 to modern-day findings, and concluded that Americans have fewer close friends and, even more important, fewer connections with other community members.
Camaraderie doesn't present itself in the wake of disaster anymore than it does in our every day lives, so long as we allow it to.
Where was Heyward's neighbor down the street or her friend across the block? Who was around to detect the early signs of mental illness?
Obviously, even the best denizen can't do it all - and that's where we need government help. This woman shouldn't have had to work eight hour shifts, because we ought to have a living wage set. We should have free daycare of which low-income, single moms can take advantage. We should have free health care - including psychiatric therapy - that would help people cope with problems they're experiencing.
But in the end, no amount of government programs can do the same for someone as a Johnny-on-the-spot do-gooder.
--
Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.dailynebraskan.com/media/storage/paper857/news/2007/08/06/Opinion/Carlson.Camaraderie.Willingness.To.Help.As.Necessary.In.Everyday.Life.As.In.Time-2929404.shtml>Daily Nebraskan - August 6, 2007</a>
Posted: 8/6/07
While watching the evening news this week, we heard brilliant accounts of heroism in response to the Interstate 35W bridge collapse into the Mississippi River. Many of these stories are reminiscent of the ones we heard years ago during the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It seems the citizens of this country can band together to accomplish so many things in times of national crisis and tragedy.
Yet, most of America's tragedies play to a deaf ear. People have no qualms with stepping in the way of danger when catastrophe strikes, but no one seems to be around to help save people from the smaller tragedies.
Sametta Heyward's babysitter had just canceled when Heyward was called in to start a double-shift at a county-run group home in South Carolina. Her two children, age 1 and 4, were left locked in her car for eight hours in the sweltering heat of that summer day.
After finding her unconscious, barely alive children in her car, Heyward tried her hardest to revive them by biting and kicking them.
Eventually she conceded to defeat. She quietly bathed and dressed them, then cached their bodies under the kitchen sink in garbage bags.
We as a nation need to band together to stop disasters - both big and small. It's obvious the deaths of these two small children were easily preventable.
At the bridge disaster, Gary Babineau was a lifeline to at least a dozen people he helped save. This woman had no lifeline - for a number of reasons.
Experts expect psychological testing of Heyward to show she was mentally unstable at the time.
Mental instability? This sounds gravely familiar to the April 16 shooting at Virginia Tech, where the mentally unstable Seung-Hi Cho killed 32 people and wounded 25 before ending his own life.
Of course, Heyward wasn't just mentally unstable - she was desperate, and without a babysitter, she had no choice.
As a near-socialist, I'm an advocate for universality of health care, which would include mental counseling.
Nevertheless, as citizens, we need to act in our communities and undertake the challenge of weaving a tighter bond among ourselves.
A paramount study last year from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago compared figures from 1985 to modern-day findings, and concluded that Americans have fewer close friends and, even more important, fewer connections with other community members.
Camaraderie doesn't present itself in the wake of disaster anymore than it does in our every day lives, so long as we allow it to.
Where was Heyward's neighbor down the street or her friend across the block? Who was around to detect the early signs of mental illness?
Obviously, even the best denizen can't do it all - and that's where we need government help. This woman shouldn't have had to work eight hour shifts, because we ought to have a living wage set. We should have free daycare of which low-income, single moms can take advantage. We should have free health care - including psychiatric therapy - that would help people cope with problems they're experiencing.
But in the end, no amount of government programs can do the same for someone as a Johnny-on-the-spot do-gooder.
--
Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.dailynebraskan.com/media/storage/paper857/news/2007/08/06/Opinion/Carlson.Camaraderie.Willingness.To.Help.As.Necessary.In.Everyday.Life.As.In.Time-2929404.shtml>Daily Nebraskan - August 6, 2007</a>
Creator
Jay Carlson
Publisher
Daily Nebraskan
Date
2007-09-03
Contributor
Sara AA Hood
Rights
Josh Swartzlander <jdwriter19@yahoo.com>
Language
eng
Citation
Jay Carlson, “CARLSON: Camaraderie, willingness to help as necessary in everyday life as in times of tragedy,” The April 16 Archive, accessed November 24, 2024, https://april16archive.org/items/show/1267.