c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and publisher of RNS.)

UNDATED _ A remarkable event occurred on my street corner this morning. A woman, crossing one of the busiest intersections in Washington, D.C., dropped a pile of papers and watched in horror as the wind scattered them in all directions.

That, of course, is not so amazing. But what followed is: A man ran into rush-hour traffic and held up his hand to stop the on-coming cars. Another man and two women jumped from the corner and began chasing papers. Passers-by paused, as if waiting to see if they were needed.

For a full minute the rush hour stopped rushing, no one honked, and everyone tried to help a stranger in need.

I promise you, this does not happen every day in this or any other city. But I suspect at least some of the participants in this little drama were feeling what I have felt during the past few days: It is a feeling of gratefulness, a sense that we should all help one another more, a spirit that is exemplified by the people of Oklahoma City.

Watching those brave people doing the best they can to help one another through an unimaginable horror has affected the entire nation. We have seen a remarkable lack of self-pity, a surprising amount of restraint and a display of genuine grief that has nothing to do with drawing attention to themselves.

The direct and indirect victims of the bombing have shamed some of us, I suspect, into acting a little more like we care about what happens to one another. Their demonstration of compassion has riveted our attention and reminded us of what we were raised to be.

As we see grieving men hug one another, mothers of different races hold hands in suffering, and even the people of Denver giving what they can to support the visitors to their city during the bombing trail, we have seen a side of human nature too often unseen, a story too often untold.

The attitude is strikingly similar to the one expressed by the flood victims of North Dakota. As we watched a region destroyed, we also watched something profound rising out of the devastation. People helped one another. They were quick to find others suffering more than themselves. They weren’t looking out for themselves first.

Perhaps because this has been a slow news period, TV reports seem to dwell a little longer on these stories. Or perhaps the developing dramas affect the reporters and producers as much as they do the rest of us.

And in the time spent really listening to suffering people, our entire nation began to understand that tragedy can expose the best in humanity. Maybe it can even become a force for good.”It is by those who have suffered that the world has been advanced,”Leo Tolstoy once wrote. He might have been writing about the people of Oklahoma City instead of those in his native Russia.

The bomb that tore apart the lives of so many also exposed the rest of us to a spirit we need more of in our country. We should all be grateful to the people of Oklahoma City for teaching us so much. And we should look for ways to help one another, to show a little more compassion, to give just a little more as part of our tribute to them.

MJP END BOURKE