How long is the world’s attention span?

I guess it depends on what we’re talking about. North Americans seem to have an almost endless ability to follow someone called “Spencer and Heidi” or “Spidy” whatever that means – tuning in daily to find out who won the argument over whether to wear their green t-shirts or the white ones. (??) But judging from global disasters in recent years it would appear the shelf life for interest in great social crises such as the tsunami in South East Asia, the hurricane in the American Gulf… or the earthquake now just off the coast of Haiti – is about three weeks. In the first week there was intrigue and horror across our nation, in the second week – intrigue and response. But by the end of the third week there was a ‘moving-on’ as news coverage decreased, the fund raisers were over and this little thing called the Superbowl was taking place.
As you can imagine the Haitians are not likely having a hard time staying focused on how their lives have been forever changed. Canadians? We’re thinking about how to get more snow up Cyrus mountain in North Vancouver. Should we use the green trucks, or the white ones.. Now don’t feel condemned here, the reality is there is no crises in the world large enough to keep anyone’s attention who is not directly effected by it. If anything proves that, Haiti does.
You know many times as a Pastor I walked a family through the loss of one of their family members. Of course for the first few days they hear from almost everyone they know as their home becomes a temporary headquarters for receiving sympathy and well wishes. Then normally within a few days there is a memorial or a funeral. Now a funeral is an amazing thing for many reasons – mainly it is seen as a time where friends and family can officially honor and celebrate the life of the one who passed on. But there is a stronger role that funerals play – it marks the moment where something called “closure” can occur. Not that the family is over it or the grieving just suddenly stops… but because of this “closure” there is a functional ability to let go, accept… and begin to move forward. But what if you didn’t just have one family member die but eight… and they didn’t die all at once but rather one at a time over a several month period… now add to that you have been evicted from your home and have no where to go, no job to go to and everyone around you is in as much need of help as you. When will closure come?
For many Canadians, closure on tragic events such as Haiti occurs simply because something else (superbowl, olympics, spidy’s shirt choice) takes its place and we can “move on” in a functional way because the earthquake victims are no longer in our site lines. That is where we’re at now on the Haitian issue. So let me appeal to a specific type of person out there today… you weren’t the immediate reactor… you didn’t give gobs of money in that high profile first wave of fund raising the other week… you felt great empathy for what was happening yet didn’t feel it was the right thing for you to respond immediately. So your friends looked at you funny when you said you hadn’t given yet and you wouldn’t dare let your coworkers know… listen - you are just the right person now who needs to understand the significance of the role YOU play and the strategy of being on the secondary response team.
If I may borrow from the Pastoral thing again, a family who loses a loved one has two needs – the first impact strike of support and encouragement they get from family and friends leading up to and during the funeral, and the later secondary response that comes from those few select and special close friends who step in “after” the funeral is gone, after the masses of people have ‘moved on’… and after the family is left alone now to deal with their grief and devastation. I can tell you first hand ‘that’ secondary response person holds by far the most powerful impact-opportunity of anyone.
Let’s use a completely different example… remember the Gulf wars? Remember the “Shock and Awe” campaign in the middle east? Remember what that looked like… That impressive first-strike stage when fighter jets bombed the heck out of a region leaving observers to wonder how anything could possibly be left. That first response was so big, so larger than life, so impressive in its visual impact…. and yet when the dust settled not only was there a society down there, there was an enemy still functioning in that region. Then came the ground force and although not as sensational and far less impressive than the bombing raid… we came to realize the big bombing raids by themselves cannot win the war, that its the secondary response that decides what impact this campaign will ultimately have.
Those initial impact hits on Haiti by the generosity of North Americans were crucial and effective… but now comes an even greater and ultimately more ‘deciding’ form of help; the secondary response team now needed desperately by the Haitian people. Those who become part of this team may well be those who ‘are’ slower to respond and I’m glad you were because although I wouldn’t want to build you up at the expense of the first-strike people, the fact is you have an opportunity now to be a difference-maker on a whole new level… and this is your time! I relate to what I’m speaking of today because I myself am slow to respond. I will almost always watch the majority run ahead while I stand back and think things through. I know many Canadians have done just that. Sometimes we end up feeling condemned – either from yourself or by others. But let me encourage you today that if you have been slow and purposeful in your response to Haiti, don’t let the fact the news coverage has slowed dramatically fool you, people are still dying in Haiti, millions are still without homes, there is still a desperate shortage of proper water or food… children are still trying to adjust to the fact their parents are suddenly gone and they are alone.. and for Haitians – there has been no “funeral”, no moment of closure…and no moving on. They will wake up tomorrow to the same nightmare they have woken to every morning for a month now.
Feed the Hungry is still there, still doing what it does day in-day out… feeding, clothing helping people not only get through this but find dignity, find hope and find the resources they need to begin to rebuild their life and move forward. Feed the Hungry cannot bring “closure” to people, but we can help them see a future. When FTH goes into a disaster zone it is not a “three and out” operation. We move in to be difference-makers for the long run – working through the community of Churches in that nation so perfectly positioned for such a time as this. I encourage Canadians today, all Canadians but especially those of you who by nature are ‘secondary responders’ to join the aftermath support team now. Call us, write us… let us know you want to be a part.
..don
Right back in the prairies this week where my truck battery has a competition every morning with the bitter cold to see who is greater.