Responding to the Tsunami

Charlie Clements, M.D.
President and CEO
UU Service Committee

Dear Friends in the UU Ministry,

The images, stories, and death toll from the tsunami in South Asia has struck us all, demanding both spiritual response – which many of you will lead in your congregations – and practical response.

The UUSC, the UUA, and the UU Holdeen India program are all working hand-in-hand with each other, with many of their overseas partners, and with other NGOs to aid the victims and help restore essential services. There are many other fine organizations involved in the massive emergency response.

I offer a few thoughts which you may feel free to use in any way that may be helpful. Feel free to edit, amend, or improve as you see fit. These thoughts do not need attribution, but may be useful as you lead prayer or meditation, call for a special offering, give a reading, homily, or sermon that touches on the disaster.

Pastorally, many of you will be dealing with questions from your congregants. What can I do to help? Where can my contribution be most effective? How do I deal with feeling overwhelmed myself, numbed by the magnitude of this tragedy? How do I talk about it with my children?

There are no simple answers to any of these questions. Each of you will respond pastorally with skill and caring, I know. I offer these thoughts based on some years of work in the humanitarian sector with the hope that they may be of some help:

1. It is important to affirm our common humanity, and to help one another know that each of us can make a difference. History is seldom made by individuals but rather by the sum of their responses in any situation. A contribution no matter how small in the face of the massive needs can make a difference. The median annual income of Americans is $37,810, compared to $930 in Sri Lanka, $530 in India. So $100 can be either a fifth or a tenth of a familyâs annual income.
   
   The local, regional, national, and international responses that are being made are complex and involve many organizations. Choose several that you trust now; analyze and evaluate the details of their work later.
   
   
2. Donât let the dignity and worth of the survivors be denied by their portrayal as voiceless victims. The media has largely sought out English speaking survivors, whose stories are moving and dramatic. Most of the stories of others are not being told. The realization of how fragile life can be also requires of us imaginative compassion and solidarity. Our solidarity with the survivors is far more valuable to them than our pity. Indeed, if we perceive the survivors only as a Îthey,â then our responses may be charitable, but if we see them as part of a larger, human Îusâ, then our responses will be more deeply empathic and longer-lasting.
   
   
3. If this is a difficult time to be as generous as one would like, resolving now to help when it is more possible is preferable to feeling badly. The danger begins again for survivors when the mediaâs attention and the international response diminishes. A larger tragedy can ensue when survivors are stalked by disease because aid agencies leave before public health infrastructure has been sufficiently rebuilt. Your support in a few weeks or a few months will be as important as immediate contributions.

In a time such as this I find it helpful to keep in mind some words from the Talmud.

"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."

Thank you for all you are doing,

Charlie Clements