As everyone knows, our neighbors down in the Lone Star State are dealing with a true disaster in every sense of the word.

Like all of you, I have seen image after image of Harvey’s wrath over the last several days, and my prayers are right there with the millions of others that have been graciously offered on behalf of those affected by the storm.

My wife, who is in the healthcare profession, shared with me a story about a nursing home near Houston in which some of the elderly residents were shown nearly submerged in flooding water as they awaited evacuation assistance. That one probably bothered me the most yet.

One would like to think that as the week has unfolded in Harvey’s wake, that stories of heroism and selflessness would take the to the forefront of national headlines as has been the norm following natural disasters throughout the past. Goodness knows that stories of aiding and assisting fellow countrymen (and women) would carry even more weight today as a very welcome change from all of the other recent headline stories across this country of division and dissent among the different races, creeds and even genders. That sure would be a great reprieve.

Unfortunately, we find ourselves instead up to our armpits in the same quagmire of politicized drivel that we have been in for years. Only this time, the current of it all is carrying us so swiftly downstream that we don’t even get the opportunity to acknowledge all of the heroes—both the ones doing their job as public servants or their duty to their fellow man—who have been working to save lives following Harvey’s assault on Texas.

We have reached the point in this country where Republican versus Democrat, Globalist versus Nationalist, and Us versus Them is more important than the very Life versus Death reality that is dealt out when natural or unnatural disasters strike. The true disaster now is how we as a culturally dissected people in this country manage to make dealing with a problem a larger problem than the original problem itself.

And that is both the saddest and the scariest image I have seen all week.

Nick Hon is the editor of The Jessamine Journal and Jessamine Life magazine. He can be reached at (859) 885-6443 or by email at nick.hon@jessaminejournal.com.