Philadelphia was struck by tragedy this week when an Amtrak derailed, killing eight people and injuring dozens more. While the incident itself is not an LGBT story, it does speak to larger truths that affect all people.
As we’ve seen time and time again, crises transcend barriers. While our society is so often self-segregating — gay or straight, white or black, young or old — when a high-intensity or life-threatening situation arises, those inherent divides vanish. The passengers helping one another off the train or the first responders tending to the victims weren’t seeing sexual orientation, race or age, they were simply seeing others in need. Similarly, the residents of Port Richmond reportedly stepped up to the plate, handing out water and other items to any and all who needed them.
For the people on the train, the accident surely was a reminder of how seemingly inconsequential decisions can have immeasurable consequences. The riders who chose to board the train in one spot, or who were in the restroom or the dining car at the time of the accident, may have walked away unscathed, while others were injured or killed. Still others may have missed the train or gotten off at earlier stops. Small choices we all make on a constant basis can literally mean life or death — a sobering realization.
But truths such as this should put the ongoing ills facing our society into contrast. We live in a culture plagued by deep divides among law enforcement and our citizens, by consistently feuding governmental bodies and by intolerance and ignorance marginalizing LGBT people and countless others. We operate each day according to discord: Democrats and Republicans trying to outmaneuver one another; right wingers and liberals looking to minimize one another’s gains; the oppressed striving to break out of their positions and the oppressors working to retain theirs.
Yet when faced with a situation that throws the fragility of life into stark contrast, division is replaced by unity. The complications that cripple us each day mean little in the shadow of a tragedy.
Somehow, that simple spirit needs to be captured to move our country forward. If the unity and generosity that is exhibited in a time of crisis could be exhibited on a larger scale, equality could be an accomplishment instead of a goal.