| In the most recent New York Times Sunday edition, | | | | words of kindness to have been heard by those who |
| there was a poignant article at the end of the | | | | had survived by the skin of their teeth?Why couldn't |
| Magazine section, written by Dr. Abraham Verghese, a | | | | our elected officials find within themselves these simple |
| Professor at the University of Texas Health Sciences | | | | words of comfort?Why was it so hard form |
| Center in San Antonio. Dr. Verghese had travelled to | | | | them?What were they thinking?Of course the flood |
| New Orleans last week to treat those Katrina | | | | victims knew that it was a natural disaster that caused |
| refugees who needed medical assistance. He shares | | | | the waters of Hell cover them and their homes. They |
| with us his feelings of inadequacy in attempting to give | | | | knew this was not the fault of any human being. But |
| his patients not only physical healing that their bodies | | | | no one said "I'm sorry," and so their human dignity was |
| needed, but more importantly, emotional healing and | | | | washed away with their childhood pictures and their |
| sustenance that their souls craved. He felt that his | | | | stainless steel place settings.Was anyone in fact truly |
| mere words were so empty of empathy, and he was | | | | sorry, or did the human dimension of all this fade away |
| totally unprepared for the devastation he saw on a | | | | into the political games that were begun |
| human level.Now I'll tell you what the good doctor said | | | | immediately.Call me a cynic, but also call me a man of |
| that moved me to tears. He meets an old sick man, a | | | | hope. When there is no hope, I look for it. And I found it |
| man with gnarled fingers and toes, but a man with the | | | | in Dr. Verghese's simple yet profound words. "I'm so |
| spirit of life still crackling within him. He tells the doctor | | | | sorry," he said. "so sorry."I'm sorry too, but not just for |
| what happened, how he was caught by the flood | | | | those who had to leave their homes and offices and |
| waters and had nowhere to go for several long and | | | | posessions and their feelings of safety. I'm sorry that |
| exhausting days. He waited and waited for help to | | | | so many of our leaders were unable to say "I'm sorry." |
| come, but it was for naught. Finally he was rescued | | | | The survivors will yet create a new life for |
| and here he was, dry for the first time in a | | | | themselves; they will in time regain their dignity and their |
| week.Patient: "Doc, they treat refugees in other | | | | humanity because they will be strong; I wonder if our |
| countries better than thery treated us."Doctor | | | | politicians ever will.Dr. Mel Glazer is a Rabbi, Author and |
| Verghese: "I'm so sorry," I said. "So sorry."And that's | | | | Speaker, and has published many articles on the art of |
| when my tear ducts gave way, for I realized a simple | | | | using our life-losses to help us learn life-lessons about |
| truth that he uttered with such sublime dignity. Listening | | | | ourselves. We only truly learn anything about ourselves |
| to comments to and about the flood victims; to all the | | | | by how we respond to the losses in our lives, so Dr. |
| local and national political leaders who "took | | | | Glazer's mission is to lead us "from mourning to |
| responsibility" for their abysmal human response to the | | | | morning." |
| hurricane; at no time did I ever hear anyone say to the | | | | He has a private practice as well as a tele-practice. |
| victims "I'm sorry" for what happened to you and your | | | | Dr. Glazer lives with his wife Ellen in Stroudsburg, PA. |
| loved ones.What would it have taken for those simple | | | | |