Squandering The Power to Help

I was watching the late local news tonight, and they had a story about the tsunami in Asia. They call it "the deadliest natural disaster in history," which, even if that's an exaggeration, paints a pretty rough picture.
They had all this video of the death and destruction. The natives, put out of their homes, dying of storm injuries with no money to rebuild and no medicines to heal themselves. Heartbreaking.

But I heard one phrase that changed everything: "Home video by amateur photographers."

Let's go through that again. This isn't some 'copter at 3000 feet with a zoom lens. These are the most fearless people, who can face a natural disaster without so much as a trace of angst or a thought of running for cover. They brave the harshest conditions just to document the destruction, death, and agony that these disasters bring.

But bravery alone is not always a virtue.

Because I have to ask myself: What kind of insensitive asshole sees people alone, dying, and in unbearable pain, and decides he'd rather film them than help them.

It's not like they have fear as an excuse -- after all, they're braving a horrible disaster just to get this on tape.

I know people do it every time there is a disaster, but I can not, for one second, imagine seeing someone dying or in pain, and saying to my friend "Get the camera, man, this is big news!"

We don't need the video. The people that you see absolutely, positively, unquestionably need help in the worst kind of way, and those who are there are the only ones who can help.

And yet they, en masse, reach for their cameras instead.

One brave soul has commented:

Name:
Email:
URL:
Comment:			/ Textile
Enter this code:
( Register your username / Log inChange Settings for )
Notify:		Yes, send me email when someone replies.
Small print: All html tags except <b> and <i> will be removed from your comment. You can make links by just typing the url or mail-address.