Why the Chinese Earthquake is More Significant than the Boston Bombings

Not seen here on American Trusim, but seen broadly in response comments on websites such as CNN.com and Huffington Post, I think a lot of folks missed my point entirely my blog post contrasting the obsession with everything Boston Marathon Bombing related and the complete indifference to the deaths and injuries in China.

I UNDERSTAND that people are more interested and more obsessed with the Boston Bombing for two main reasons:

• Boston is in the United States - That act of terror happened here, in our backyard, on American soil.
  
• Terrorism is a Deliberate Act, Earthquakes are Acts of Nature - Terrorism is much more grave.

I GET that, OK?  That was never in question.  You'll get no argument from me that there would naturally be more interest in a bombing inside the United States vs. an earthquake in China.  WE'RE ON THE SAME PAGE.

What I DON'T get is that there was next to NO coverage of the devastation and death caused by the Chinese earthquake.

What's worse, in the small amount of coverage we're now seeing, it appears that impacted Chinese citizens are not getting the help nor the attention they deserve, either. 

100,000 Homeless in China  

"We are in the open air here. No place to sleep, nothing to eat. No one is paying any attention to us," said Peng Qiong, 45, a farmer in Chaoyang village on the outskirts of Lushan, near the epicenter.

Thousands of displaced survivors are living in Red Cross tents following an earthquake in China's Sichuan province, though many are left with no form of shelter. Saturday's 6.6 magnitude earthquake killed more than 200 people and has left an estimated 100,000 homeless.

Caring about the 200 who died, the 11,000 who were injured and the 100,000 left homeless does not take away from how we feel about the tragedy in Boston, but we MUST treat these situations very differently and ask the world to begin paying attention to the needs of the Chinese people affected by this natural disaster.

Three Die in Boston, 186 in China - Which Gets More Media Attention?

The two Boston Marathon bombing culprits have been killed in one case and captured in the other.  They turned out to be brothers who had lived in the Boston area for quite a while, but felt tied to Chechnya, and possibly conducted this act of terrorism as a Chechnya protest.  Maybe?

That one of the terrorists is dead, and the other captured is a good thing.

Along with rest of the United States, I sat, transfixed Friday night, as police forces (local, state and federal) converged on a covered boat parked in a Watertown, MA driveway, bringing an incredible manhunt to a close, with the second terrorist, a 19-year-old, being shot and eventually surrendering to authorities.

Their deadly act killed three people in Boston, and injured hundreds more.

Then, half a world away, a major earthquake struck the Chinese province of Sichuan at 8 a.m. local time, killing 186 and injuring more than 11,000.


How much television coverage have you seen of the earthquake in China or the 186 deaths there?

All I've seen is a text crawl at the bottom of the screen while wall-to-wall, repetitious coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombings continues on all the 24-hour news networks (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.) non stop.

Three people died in Boston.  186 in China.  11,000+ were injured in China.

Where are the five-minute profiles of children who died in the China earthquake?  Instead, we're treated to "deep background" pieces on the Boston Terrorists, the Tsarnaev brothers and speculation by talking heads about what might have radicalized these men.

What about the dead and injured in China?

I'm not saying the events which unfolded in Boston aren't newsworthy.  They clearly are, and I was among the "consumers" of news all week long, and especially into the weekend.

But, do they justify the amount of international news coverage they're receiving, especially on the same weekend that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 200 people (sure to be more) and injured 11,000?

We need to get our priorities straight, here in the United States and elsewhere.