What can tragedy tell us?

  A terrible story here; one that may illustrate a few truths about human nature. Actually, it is but one of many stories within a larger tragedy that was the aftermath of the Great Galveston Storm of 1900.

  Before beginning, there's a feeling among some people that goes something like this:  Why mention such a terrible story?  Why spend your time reading it, and writing about it?  This isn't speculation, because a question like that was put to me before.  So that thought is appropriate to mention here.  The answer to the question is that the story is about truth... If you want to wear rose-colored glasses, and pretend that everything in the world is peachy-keen, you will run the risk of being unprepared when disaster does indeed strike.  And it will.   You can count on that.

  Others may read it and say those people were to blame for their own fate. But that happened in 1900. They didn't have the warning systems that we have today... You really cannot blame them entirely; but there was a history of storms wiping out coastal cities along the Gulf Coast, prior to this one. More than one town got obliterated when one of those storms hit.  The risk of living there had to be well-known before this tragedy occurred.

  Yeah, but what do I get out of that story?  Just a snippet of it will reveal the point which I am trying to get across.  For even in the midst of horror, it is necessary for some folks to step up to the plate, and do what needs to be done.  Here's a paraphrasing of the snippet.  I won't quote directly from the Texas History book. The story is that something had to be done about the enormous number of dead bodies.  The bodies were decomposing rapidly, and the corpses had to be dealt with.  There simply was no time to waste.  There was difficulty getting men to volunteer for the task of placing the corpses on a barge and sinking it in the midst of the Gulf, far away from shore.  The city was under martial law, and a company of men with bayonets had to be summoned to compel a group of men to perform this awful task.  For if it was not done, a grave risk of disease could have wiped out the rest of the survivors.  Corpses were bloated, and some were already bursting.

  But what is the point?  The point is that those people could not be reasoned with. Even when it was reasonable to see that it was a necessary task that had to be done IMMEDIATELY, NOBODY WAS WILLING TO DO IT.  Force had to be applied. So you can wear your rose-colored glasses all you want. You can deny that people would as a rule, refuse to do what is necessary. But then, you find a story like this.

  If you still don't get the point, then I don't know what else I can tell you. Complaining about how awful everything is won't make things better.  You have to step up and DO SOMETHING.  Hopefully, it is the right thing.  For if force is going to be applied, it could easily be for the wrong reasons.  In that situation as well, it is necessary to do something.  Whatever that action may be, you may have to pay the price for it, and that may be your freedom or your very life.