The Voice

Last Saturday morning, people all over Georgia woke up in dark, cold homes. There was no power, no heat and, in some instances, no access to roads because of ice and fallen debris.

It’s amazing what a few inches of ice and slush can do to even the smallest of towns.

What would have happened if the power stayed out for weeks at a time? What if Georgia Power and other area power companies neglected their customers? What if there was no power company?

Generally, students are a complaining body of people: No parking, no time, no energy, no money. During the ice storm, we were no different. We scrambled for firewood at local retail stores and dialed our friends from our cell phones in search of a hot shower. We even griped about the waits at the few drive-thru lines that were open.

What if we had been hit by a tsunami?

The world woke up Dec. 26 and power was out in countless villages in Asia. There was no water and there was no power company.

Instead of a few inches of ice covering your car, it could have been completely washed away and carried miles down a violent stream of muddy ruin.

If you thought you were terribly inconvenienced, let’s just take a minute and put things into perspective. Only a few were out of power for extended periods of time, some maybe spent the night in the cold, or at a friend’s house. Thanks to Georgia and Tri-County Power, everything was up and running in a couple of days-a blessing, really.

There are still people recovering in Asia. We lost electricity while others lost their families-the healing time will, of course, be longer, but there are relief workers helping to rebuild-each one a blessing in his or her own right.

Being thankful can be a clich?, but now, after our recent hiccup, we should think twice about everything we have, and, at the same time, how little it all means.

The men and women behind the power lines, working in the dark of night in bitter cold-they were our blessings. So, it is our duty to pass that blessing on to those whom we may be able to help.

Give to tsunami relief funds. Say thank you. With all that we own, giving things that cannot be bought can be the most valuable gift of all.

To give to the Murali Thirumal’s Sri Lanka Disaster Relief Fun, visit relieflanka.org/index.htm or e-mail Thirumal at mthirumal@reliefelanka.org.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 4 2005. Filed under Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry