During the past two weeks, I have found myself strangely sad. No matter what I am doing, if I am in my apartment, I turn on the TV to CNN or Headline News and try to make sense of the world in which we live. As a hurricane has hit many cities in the gulf, terrorized families, sent friends away from one another and caused complete chaos in cities like New Orleans, I go to sleep at night with the uncomfortable guilt that it wasn't my house and my life is intact.
I have three close guy friends who were directly affected by the hurricane and even more friends in my sorority and high school. In my life of knowing these people, I have never seen them so sad, overwhelmed, angry and powerless. It has been a difficult week for many of us as we discuss the implications of this disaster, how it will affect this school, our friends, the economy and most recently, the busing of many homeless people to other cities like Dallas and Houston.
But my greatest concern is that of what I can do to make sure every person who lost a home, every high schooler who is trying to find somewhere to finish up AB Calculus before he or she graduates, or every senior in college who, until last weekend, planned on graduating in May gets his or her life back in order.
This weekend I watched friends collect money for K.A.R.E. at the football game, with what is rumored to be incredible success. As an officer in my sorority, I received e-mails from people nationwide starting funds for people or specific places or encouraging my house to open its doors to those members or families of members who need help in this difficult time.
I am greatly proud of the leadership on Grounds in every person who collected money, said a prayer, assisted in a fundraiser or offered practical support to those displaced students who needed to know where the Bookstore is.
I am proud to be in a community under the leadership of President John T. Casteen, III, whose ability to articulate the necessity of community always has impressed me. I am more aware than ever in my last year at the University that my love affair with blue and orange is well-warranted.
Yet, I cannot help but be the most saddened by the opposite reactions to this tragedy: people shooting down helicopters, looters taking advantage of a ransacked New Orleans to steal unnecessary items like TVs and, worst of all in my opinion, the overwhelming lack of support for those who are homeless, poor and without a place to go.
A lot of us will never know what it is like to live through a natural disaster, and statistically, it is almost impossible that any of us, simply because of our college degrees, will ever live on the streets. So, it is no shock to me that I as well as others find it hard to empathize with those people who literally have nothing to their names.
Yet, my challenge to this community is to recognize that the aftermath of such a storm is not one city's problem, but a national one, that at any time it could have been our homes and not someone else's, that we are not exempt from stepping up and offering help simply because it makes us uncomfortable that our cities might have more homeless people coming to them at this moment.
No class I will ever take has made the spectrum of human capability so clear to me as the events of this week. I believe if we are to know ourselves to our greatest abilities, we need to recognize the fact that as much as it might make us uncomfortable or how far we might need to stretch our wallets, we have an obligation to other human beings. Call it compassion, a commission or whatever else, but it is real and it is necessary.
I encourage everyone to participate in the many fundraisers going on in our community this week and in those to come. So many people have given a lot of time and money. For that, I know my good friends and those around me appreciate your support and sympathy.
I want to be clear in saying that I do not typically write pieces like this. In fact, much of my work is about how to get the perfect Christmas present out of your significant other. But I feel in the wake of such tragedy, I would be irresponsible if I did not voice the hurt and concern of my community.
This past week and those to come will always serve as one of my greatest lessons in college. And as time goes on and lives are rebuilt, I may go to bed a little less sad than I did the night before, but this moment in my nation's history will be one of change in me.
Nevertheless, in two weeks I'll have another way for you to get the love of your dreams in 900 words or less.
Callan's column runs bi-weekly on Tuesdays. She may be reached at blount@cavalierdaily.com.
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