An appeal for compassion!

Those readers who already know RoseMary’s NoteBook© and our other self-esteem initiatives, will also realise that we care not only for women, for also men and children, more especially when their needs are outside of everyday ordinary happy and healthy living.

So it is that with the massive, devastating and crushingly cruel floods that have inflicted untold misery to hundreds of thousands of Australians; washed away homes (and all their contents and memories), ruined businesses, and ultimately taken lives, that we stand in utter amazement and ponder and think about all our brothers and sisters in Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia and now Victoria.  Entire towns and regional cities are silent as residents have been, or are, fighting to save their homes by sandbagging or else evacuating to relief centres.   Many towns have been flooded no less than 3 and even 5 times during the past 6 weeks or so.  Western Australia has been touched with fires at the very same time. 

Lives have been impacted to enormous degrees - as a woman (and a mother) who cannot be touched emotionally to the core by the news of a pregnant woman having her little toddler ripped from her arms by the massive surging floods?   Who cannot be touched by the news of a young woman who was hoisted up into the ceiling of her home by her brother, only to watch horrified as her mother and father were torn out of their kitchen into the swirling mud and debris filled flood waters?  Who cannot be touched by the realisation that many women have lost their partners/husbands/sons/brothers to the floodwaters?  Who cannot be touched at the news of entire families left with nothing - no clothes, no food, no water, no toys for their children, no photo albums, not even a toothbrush.

Who cannot be touched by the scenes of devastation as the massive “inland tsumani” tore down the streets of Toowomba throwing cars about as though they were small toys?  Who cannot be touched by the residents of the small town of Grantham which was disseminated - houses forever lost as they were torn from their foundations resulting in huge piles of debris.   So many lives effected and impacted in a matter of hours, days, weeks.  So many treasures, possessions and memories wiped out in swirling waters.

Who cannot be touched by the "human-ness" of so many menfolk who did (and do) their best to help their mates and who seeing their whole lives ripped apart by homes no longer fit to live in, are close to tears.   Who cannot be touched knowing that hundreds of beloved pets are lost.Who cannot be touched by the thousands upon thousands of small businesses ruined completely and many hundreds of thousands of people left bankrupt.  And for thousands of people there is no insurance - not even a cent.  Who cannot be touched by the sight of swirling, silt laden, muddy waters flowing out into Moreton Bay (Queensland); homes, shops and businesses completely submerged in New South Wales and Victoria throughout hundreds of small country towns and regional cities?

There are stories of heroism too;  a man swimming out to protect a woman caught up in the floodwaters; another man holding his friend for hours,  and stories of incredible surprises - pets found; small memories in a book that escaped the floods, a framed certificate of a daughter's accomplishments saved from the mud;  a wedding dress that looks ruined but which can be dry-cleaned even though every other garment that was left in the house had to be thrown into the waste rubbish skip. 

And throughout it all, women holding back their own tears, as they express resilience and a determination to keep going; to rebuild their lives for the sake of their husbands/partners and children.  Women who are scared of what the future will hold, but who are determined to focus on what can be done, rather than on what has happened.   Real women, real flesh-and-blood women, who need our thoughts and our prayers and ......

As proud Australians, we would urge and recommend readers to consider sending a donation to the Premier of Queensland’s Flood Appeal, no matter how small.  Please also consider the warning to check out the legitimacy of any charity that is appealing for funds and donations.

As Helen Keller said, and this is a quotation I often use:

“I am only one, but still I am one. 

I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; 

and because I cannot do everything, 

I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”

SCAMwatch is warning consumers to thoroughly check the legitimacy of charities when donating to help flood victims in central and south east Queensland.   http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

.....© 2011, Rosemary