In empathy

As I sit here working, fighter jets are screaming overhead. No, I'm not in a war zone - it is my city's annual summer "festival" which includes an "air show" of military jets. I live in the neighborhood where the jets fly closest to the ground.

I know that there are people who enjoy this form of entertainment - obviously, it draws the summer crowds like crazy - and while I do not judge it, I absolutely do not understand it. To me, this is the most viscerally unpleasant sound I have ever experienced. A bone-rattling roar that gets lounder and louder until you think it's not possible to crescendo any further, and then, at its peak, adds a screaming pitch like an enraged, vicious animal. Knowing that I am in no danger, it still activates adrenal fear responses - heartrate, respiration - and I can appreciate the role of these machines as agents of intimidation and fear as well as destruction in a real situation of war.

Which brings me back to the people around the world trapped with this sound for real, day in and day out, along with the bombing and explosions that come with it. Every year at this time, I wonder how people survive that experience with their minds unfractured by the strain.

On that note, and at the request of a reader for more information on a previous post, I pass along an update from a relief agency that we support that is providing aid to civilians trapped and displaced by the fighting in Lebanon (and also Gaza). Mercy Corps is a secular nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon that is familiar with Lebanon through its economic and civic development projects there, and is now one of the few organizations braving ravaged and dangerous roads to deliver food, water and sanitary supplies to southern Lebanon. Just as with Hurricane Katrina, many of the people left behind closest to danger were those with the least ability to evacuate: elderly, incapacitated, poor, without private transport, families with multiple small children and no way to move them. A million people are now estimated to be displaced in Lebanon.

Whatever your view on this war - and I know I have friends who disagree with mine - I hope we can all laud these efforts to deliver the most basic life-sustaining support to civilians caught in the horrific crossfire. I hope you will consider giving your support. (To see a video story following along with this Mercy Corps convoy, see this NY Times video story.)

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Dear friend,

Two Mercy Corps truckloads of critical food supplies and blankets reached the beleaguered town of Marjayoun on Tuesday - one of the first organized relief convoys to reach this devastated part of southern Lebanon.

Because of the increasingly desperate situation there, we made the decision to go without waiting for a response for a guarantee of safety from Israel - something that has been holding back convoys from the UN and other colleague agencies.

We need your help to continue and expand these efforts. Support from our regular, dedicated donors like you enables us to be bold, creative and quick in our response.

The crisis in Lebanon is our No. 1 priority. I am currently in Lebanon lending support to our relief team, underscoring our commitment and trying to draw more attention to the immense humanitarian needs here.

If you haven't donated yet, please make a donation today. Every dollar you give can help us secure at least $7 of food, water, fuel and other critical supplies on the ground.

If you have already given, we THANK YOU on behalf of the people we've assisted so far. You can help us even more by forwarding this email to your friends and family.

Finally, I'm attaching an email that I received on Tuesday from our team on the ground. I'm immensely proud of their heroic efforts to help innocent civilians who are caught in the crossfire.

Please spread the word and give what you can today.

Thank you,

Neal Keny-Guyer
CEO
Mercy Corps

--- Original Message ---

From: David Holdridge
Subject: LRT Daily Brief
Date: 8/1/06
To: Neal Keny-Guyer

--Left Beirut early this morning, arriving Marjayoun at about 12:30... The mayor and vice mayor met the convoy in the central square and welcomed our team. (We actually helped rehabilitate the square, Soukh Marjayoun, last year as part of our tourism project.) We followed them to a school, where there were about 24 families (about 6-7 members per family) ... and then went to a second school, approx. 16 families. Distributed food and blankets both places.

--Back at the central depot, about 25 men helped offload the remaining food items and blankets... no food in the depot from anyone else, so it made a significant difference that we went.

--The trip was arduous. It took about 5 hours... normally 45 minutes. So many parts of the main roads aren't passable... it was difficult. At times we had to drive through olive groves and on dirt roads. One truck had 240 cartons (food for one family of ten for a week) ... heavy cartons. In the second truck there were about 50 bales of blankets (30 blankets per bale). We had a Lebanese police escort, and I was on the phone with the mayor in Marjayoun every 15-20 minutes as we approached.

--Our distributions in the Aley area southeast of Beirut still ongoing... 600 families Sunday, 600 families Monday. We have a warehouse up there now. Continue to deliver food parcels, blankets, mattresses, hygiene kits. Filling water tanks on top of schools, other buildings where displaced families are staying. Hope to reach 100,000 people in the Chouf.

--We're going to try to get down to Nabatiye with some food convoys in the coming days. Hard to find drivers who will go there because of the danger ... awful lot of fear about moving south. But we will persist.

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Mercy Corps * 3015 SW 1st Ave., Dept. W * Portland, OR 97201