Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast

Yesterday’s post was about the Gate’s Foundations investment in vaccines to save the lives of 8 million kids and how as a one day story compared to the crisis in Haiti it was an example of the drama of tragedy vs. the numbing of statistics.

In his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Obama more eloquently made the same point:

“Sadly, though, that spirit is too often absent when tackling the long-term, but no less profound issues facing our country and the world. Too often, that spirit is missing without the spectacular tragedy, the 9/11 or the Katrina, the earthquake or the tsunami, that can shake us out of complacency. We become numb to the day-to-day crises, the slow-moving tragedies of children without food and men without shelter and families without health care. We become absorbed with our abstract arguments, our ideological disputes, our contests for power. And in this Tower of Babel, we lose the sound of God’s voice. “