The 2015 Nepal Earthquake - 7.8 Magnitude on Apr 25, 2015 with Deaths Surpassing 5,000

[DonRocks]

I'm very happy all the survivors have been rescued from Mount Everest, but time is obviously of the essence to assist Nepal, with over 5,000 people having perished thus far.

It is episodes such as this when America can rise to the occasion, and be looked at as heroic and kind, rather than a nation to be feared and despised. There is not one single person of good conscience who doesn't wish to help the poor Nepalese going through so much misery right now - I know that I would personally do anything I could; yet, I feel powerless.

I dream of a world where the United States of America is known for its rapid response to global catastrophes, rather than securing its own selfish interests in foreign countries, and I have enough blind optimism to believe that it's not that much of a change to make - just as our police could easily take on the attitude as "guardians" rather than "enforcers," so can our military, and we'll be much better off for it as a nation, with the rest of the civilized world our strong friends and allies, rather than our fearful enemies.

Please forgive me my wishful thinking, but we can do this - I know we can.

Eventually, a rapid-response system should be in place where people like me can donate $20, and be sure it's going to the right place; as it stands, I would not feel right donating to anyone, and it isn't because I don't wish to help others - quite to the contrary, I wish nothing more than to help others in their time of dire need. Donors shouldn't need to sift through internet searches to verify the validity of an organization; it should be widely known, *before* disaster strikes, and should ideally have an already-funded budget that merely needs to be replenished, along with proper expertise and training to handle a wide variety of calamities.

This should be a top national priority, at least of the same urgency as landing a man on the moon before the U.S.S.R. did. Another disaster will occur in the future, perhaps the near future, and we need to be one-step closer to mobilization and assistance on a near-instant basis, be the catastrophe from earthquake, tsunami, flood, hurricane, famine, disease, or anything else involving lost lives on a massive scale.

We need to be there for our brothers and sisters at their most desperate moments, regardless of whether or not they're our allies. And I believe this needs to be a cabinet-level organization, an order of magnitude more powerful than FEMA.

"What You Need To Know Before Donating To Earthquake Relief For Nepal" by Diane Cole on npr.org