"Oh God, not again."

These words echoed through our nation as we watched the space shuttle Columbia explode into blazing streaks of smoke just minutes from home Feb. 1., the tragedy a harsh reminder of the Challenger explosion 17 years earlier.

America has seen its share of tragedy in the past few years. In 1995, Timothy McVeigh bombed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and shaking the certainty held by most Americans that major acts of terrorism happen many places, but never here.

On Sept. 11, 2001, our sense of security was shattered as terrorists used our own methods of transportation as weapons against us, turning four commercial airplanes into flying bombs and killing more than 3,000 people. We continue to grieve for the people killed and the innocence we lost.

While we still feel shock in the face of violence and disaster, there is now a weariness that seeps through us. "What next," we ask as we watch picture after picture of the twisted pieces of metal that were once a space shuttle. What tragedy will we be faced with next, and when will it happen?

Many will speculate that we have become desensitized to tragedy. You can only watch the World Trade Center Towers collapse on CNN so many times before the entire event takes on a surreal quality. That's not insensitivity; that's survival. If you continue to feel just as scared, shocked and sad as you do when you first learn of any tragedy, the mass media will drive you insane.

It is easy to think of the violent losses we've suffered, and the goodbyes we've had to make too soon, and lose faith in people. But from these disasters, good that otherwise goes unnoticed is seen.

There are few scenes more moving than the images we saw of policemen, firefighters, and volunteers working tirelessly and at great peril to themselves to find survivors in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing and Sept. 11 attacks.

As one united nation, we watched. Few people can say that they didn't find some way to help or lend aid.

Blood banks were inundated with people lining up to give blood, money was donated to relief funds, and complete strangers shared kind words and embraces, related by grief.

The violent and tragic events that shake us as a nation also remind us of our connection to one another, and it is through that connection that we help each other heal.

To those who say we are desensitized to tragedy, I say this: Do not mistake strength for indifference.

Yes, we do react differently to disasters than we once did. It takes less time for shock to wear off enough for people to find out what can be done to help.

An immediate response to the needs of others in times of emergency is not desensitization ‹ it's love.

So, while we cannot know what new disasters might lie before us, we can know that they will be met with a strength born of experience and a readiness to help each other.

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