Order AND Chaos?

The fact that these two posts on The Corner are right next to one another shakes me up a little. On one hand, the apparent fairness of the Ukranian election (this time) is a fantastic testament to the power of people who believe in freedom and the ability to peacefully bring about change.

On the other, the earthquake and tsunami that hit India and it's surroundings yesterday is the strongest sort of reminder that man cannot control all, with firepower or with peaceful demonstration. By all accounts, better communication and planning could have saved thousands of lives this tragedy took - but by many of the same accounts, the event was so rare that planning for it seemed unecessary.

Individually, I can understand the significance of each of these events - at least to some degree. Together, though, it's more difficult, especially since they occurred the day after Christmas.

Right now, the most apparent common thread between them is in a piece of my reaction to each event individually: they reinforce my thankfulness to be American. The strength of our material and ideological resources couldn't be more apparent to me than today.