The Same Humanity
/When disaster brings out the best in us
Hundreds or even thousands of volunteers brought donations of medicines, bottled water, baby food, pet food and more to a donation center in Mexico City following the September earthquake there. (photo by Maya Kroth)
Journalist Maya Kroth was in Mexico City this fall, when a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck.
Hundreds of people died; it was the deadliest quake in a generation. But in the weeks after the earthquake, Maya watched something happen out in the streets of Mexico City that made her think about disasters a little differently.
As she would learn, tragedy has a way of bringing out the best in people -- a way of weaving us together into a giant invisible tapestry, held together by our common humanity.
“If this had happened in the U.S., I would’ve waited for someone in charge to tell me where to go, what to do. But here, it’s like everybody knows that nobody is really in charge, so they just do it themselves.”
Maya Kroth has been on Out There before. Her previous piece, Another Channel, tells the story of one of those eerie coincidences that can't quite be explained by science.
