I should mention here that I've known [Len Gengel] for years. His sister Christine is a friend. The large Gengel clan is truly salt of the earth, and Len is a generous and compassionate guy, a skilled builder who uses his success and resources to give back to his community.
Thankfully, the mean-spirited reaction to the Gengels' nightmare is offset by the scores of supportive posts from good people offering hopes and prayers. Even those who may privately quibble with claims that our nation isn't doing its part are empathetic enough to put themselves in this father's shoes. Who wouldn't pull out all the stops? Who wouldn't move heaven and earth, the media and the president, to save their child?
Maybe it's because I know the character of Len Gengel, but I'm horrified that anyone would fault him now. Of course, it says more about them than it does about him. And it says much about the people we're in danger of becoming, when a human tragedy is met with sneers rather than sorrow from the online, anonymous lynch mob.
Within hours of learning that his daughter had in fact not been rescued from Haiti as previously announced, Len Gengel stood on her college campus in Florida and pleaded for help in finding his missing child.
Before making his emotional appeal, though, Len did something else - he thanked God that some of Britney's classmates had been rescued.
"We are so happy for the parents of the eight students who made their way out of the Hotel Montana in Haiti, and so thankful to God for their safety," he said, his voice shaking.
He meant it, and I was struck by the generosity of his remarks. Here was a man who was enduring the worst that life could throw at a human being, and his thoughts were with the lucky parents of lucky children.
I should mention here that I've known Len Gengel for years. His sister Christine is a friend. The large Gengel clan is truly salt of the earth, and Len is a generous and compassionate guy, a skilled builder who uses his success and resources to give back to his community.
I'm certainly not the first person to comment about the coarsening of our culture, but I'm sickened by it today. Because as a father's pleas for help to Haiti grow more desperate, so, too, do the angry bloggers grow more vile and venomous.
"The guy should be thanking the university for doing what they did instead of trying to grab media attention," one commenter posted on the CBS "Early Show" Web site, after Len appeared on the program. On the Telegram Web site, another member of the lynch mob wrote in capital letters: "YOUR THINKING IS THE TYPICAL UGLY AMERICAN - WE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD!!!! WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE YOU EXACTLY!?!"
What is wrong with people, exactly?
I realize that I shouldn't be surprised. Many of the anonymous posters on media Web sites are notorious for their bile and incivility. Most of them are perpetually offended to the point of absurdity. As a columnist, I'm all too familiar with angry e-mails and the well-documented phenomenon of Internet rage rather than reason.
Call me naive, but I assumed that a frantic father whose child is missing in the rubble of an earthquake would be given a pass. Not a chance.
"He has no right to criticize the efforts of the rescuers because they are not specifically helping HIM," someone posted on "The Early Show" Web site. "Free will, baby; his daughter could have chosen NOT to go ... . Theirs was a volunteer mission and volunteers can have no expectations. Did this university tell them that they would be airlifted out in the event of a disaster?" Others, incredibly, have called this thoroughly decent man self-centered and arrogant.
The nation has been following the Gengels' saga since last Tuesday, when the earthquake struck Haiti and collapsed the hotel where Britney and her classmates were staying. Initially, Len and his wife, Cherylann, were told that Britney had been airlifted out of the country. Then came word that a terrible mistake had been made and that Britney was still missing.
Her father knows that time is running out. On CNN, he's begged President Obama to send more troops and equipment to the hotel. On the Larry King show, he begged Larry King to get involved. Sleep challenged and emotionally ravaged, Len is sobbing and pleading for more. Over the years, I've noticed that parents of missing children are focused on results rather than decorum. Go figure.
Thankfully, the mean-spirited reaction to the Gengels' nightmare is offset by the scores of supportive posts from good people offering hopes and prayers. Even those who may privately quibble with claims that our nation isn't doing its part are empathetic enough to put themselves in this father's shoes. Who wouldn't pull out all the stops? Who wouldn't move heaven and earth, the media and the president, to save their child?
