Could We Have Done More?

Here is a letter from Harry Reynolds of Bradley Road:
To the Editor: Politeness in the criticism of others is the rule in this village, except in those rare cases of indefensible immorality of which the village as a whole are guilty.

In the recent chaotic storm, nothing horrific happened to us, as far as I know. Damages ranged from rain entering open attic windows to distress over traffic into the city or the sight of one’s tree reclining like a drunk on an angry neighbor’s garage. Compared to the unspeakable suffering of others in Far Rockaway or Staten Island or in the public housing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, our suffering amounted to a teaspoon of misery.

What have we learned about how we acted in the storm?

We learned that our contemptibly selfish capacity for abandoning the people stumbling among the wreckage in the Third World countries of Far Rockaway or Staten Island or in the public housing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side was immense.

Where and among whom was there even the lifting of an eyelid to help those people with donations of money and clothing? What did the ministers or congregations of our respective faiths do for those people? What did you and your family do?

What did we learn about ourselves? We learned that come hell or high water we will not move a foot or a hand to help one another, even when there is no storm, even when the need may be that of an old person a house or two away from our porch where, on a summer Sunday afternoon, we stand and, looking about for a second or two, contentedly count ourselves God’s wonderful creation.

Harry Reynolds
Bradley Road