When I heard about the attacks in Norway, I thought: "This is terrible." I thought: "Why do we hurt each other like this?" I thought: "How much longer until I get off work?"
When tragedy happens somewhere else in the world, it's so easy to express the appropriate amount of sympathy and then move on. What else can we do? It only touched us for a moment. I feel guilty about my short-lived sorrow, but to give all the the tragedies in the world the proper reaction would be a full time job, and I feel helpless to do anything to ease the pain. So I live my life, where my individual actions have an immediate impact.
Maybe we just need more pictures. Pictures that show people just like me living their lives, lives that have been turned upside down in a moment or even extinguished. I still don't know what I can do to help, but today I cried for a stranger. Maybe that counts for something?
The link below has photos from the aftermath in Norway. Warning: They do not hold back. But I think that's key. They make this more than just a news story.
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/07/tragedy-in-norway/100113/
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