Sensationalism?

I have been asked at times why I would post a video like the one I did yesterday, the one from Lefkada, with the capsized boat carrying migrants, that it seemed sensational. I have to admit that the question got me thinking. Is it just sensationalism? Why would we watch people working together to recover the bodies of children and the grief and lament that is obvious in that task? I don’t honestly have the answer to that. But I do know why I posted that video, and why I have posted similar ones in the past. Because incidents like that happen all the time. Most of the time there are “small scale,” one or three dead, sometimes more like today, other times a lot more like Lampedusa. But whether we hear about it in the main news or it is just a footnote in a local paper, all those incidents have a thing in common. The people lost are just a number. Most of the time we don’t know their names, their stories, their dreams, where they came from, their hopes for wherever they are trying to go to, the nightmares of the places they are escaping from. When the number is small they get ignored. When the numbers are big they become a symbol of failed policies, or a symbol for policy reforms, or whatever the politicians of the day need symbols for. But in the end I think that all they wanted to be is human beings living a life of dignity, and maybe even a little comfort and joy. Yes, I cry when I see videos like that, when I read news like that and I suspect that many of you do too. And maybe as our tears join theirs we can keep remembering our, and their, humanity. Because I think we owe them at least that.