Kevin Marshall's America » Twentieth Century http://www.kevinmarshallonline.com/blog Musing & misadventures of a writer, comedian, and local treasure Thu, 13 Nov 2014 00:17:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 Reaction by some to Japanese tsunami nothing short of monstrous http://www.kevinmarshallonline.com/blog/2011/03/15/reaction-by-some-to-japanese-tsunami-nothing-short-of-monstrous/ http://www.kevinmarshallonline.com/blog/2011/03/15/reaction-by-some-to-japanese-tsunami-nothing-short-of-monstrous/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:55:02 +0000 http://blog.timesunion.com/marshall/?p=4448 Reader GenWar linked me to one of many articles I’ve seen lately that I’ve found disturbing and, as an American, a bit embarrassing. It concerns the reaction some have had to the disaster in Japan, this time coming from WNBA guard Cappie Pondexter:

“What if God was tired of the way they treated [...]]]>

According to some, she deserves this agony.

Reader GenWar linked me to one of many articles I’ve seen lately that I’ve found disturbing and, as an American, a bit embarrassing. It concerns the reaction some have had to the disaster in Japan, this time coming from WNBA guard Cappie Pondexter:

“What if God was tired of the way they treated their own people in there own country! Idk guys he makes no mistakes,” the guard, now with the WNBA’s New York Liberty, tweeted on her account, cappa23.

“u just never knw!” she Tweeted later on. “They did pearl harbor so u can’t expect anything less.”

It’s not a sentiment that Pondexter is alone in. A glance on many Facebook walls and Twitter feeds will show the same sentiment being expressed ad nauseam, some of which have been collected on various websites for posterity.

There’s also Gilbert Gottfried, whose tweeted joke about the disaster resulted in his dismissal as the voice of the AFLAC duck, which was the one thing keeping him in the limelight (since it clearly wasn’t his material).

The amazement I have with this reaction is two-fold: that people whose parents weren’t even alive when Pearl Harbor happened still harbor resentment towards them for it, and also that they’d be stupid enough to share this with anyone – let alone on a public forum – while the body count continues to climb.

So what exactly for these people are the statute of limitations? What’s the statute of limitations? Will we refuse help for England because of the revolution? Do we look past a disaster in our own soil because it’s in the South, which once seceded from our Union?

It was sixty years ago. It was another time. It was a completely different world.

There can’t be an excuse for this behavior. It’s ugly, wrong-headed, and monstrous, and anyone harboring those sentiments at this time needs to do some very deep soul-searching.

Well, let me be your Catholic Priest, except instead of advising you to recite thirteen Hail Marys, I’m asking you to give $20 (or whatever you can afford) to any of the following organizations helping out with the relief:

Your conscience requires it.

And if you’re not one of those select few, why not donate anyway to show the world that Americans are better than that?

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