Like everyone else I have been watching the devastation following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Like any decent human being my heart goes out to the thousands of people who are homeless, looking for lost loved ones, injured, hungry, or hurting in any other way.
Sadly, not everyone is a decent human being. At least not from some of the horrible comments I’ve seen posted online. How anyone can even have the thought that this disaster is “Payback for Pearl Harbor” is beyond me. How anyone can actually have the audacity to say it out loud or post it online is just more than my little brain can handle. I don’t even have the words to express how much that disgusts me.
And then there are those who are wondering if this is a sign of the end of the world. I don’t personally believe that it is but if I’m wrong I guess we’ll find out soon enough and it certainly does make for interesting conversation fodder. However, I am NOT on board with the folks who are using some kind of “new math” to determine that the world is going to end in 2012 because 9/11/01 plus 3/10/11 equals 12/21/12 though. What a huge slap in the face to the tens of thousands of suffering Japanese people! Plus there’s no reason to link those two events. It would make more sense to link this event to the Indonesian tsunami of 12/26/04 or the earthquake that hit China in 1976- that country’s worse in the modern era. But then you get the nonsensical date of 15/36/15 or a date that’s already past of 10/27/87 so I suppose that’s no good for them.
I know it takes all kinds of people and that free speech is one of the great privileges all of us US citizens have. But there’s nothing wrong with thinking before you speak. I just wish everyone knew that.