On the Power of Giving

For the Tsunami in Japan there was noise on the Internet by what me might call the "no gooders" who said, essentially, "Why should we give money to help Japan?" Which quickly devolved into all sorts of "Blah blah blah World War II this and World War II that, when have they ever helped us?"
Of course, Japanese have provided donations and relief after Hurricane Katrina. Heck, the Japanese have donated heavily for our latest storm tragedies in the South.

But more rationally, and less mean-spiritedly I suppose one might ask: Why do 1st-world countries need to donate to one another? I mean, we're all powerful economies that can do most anything we put our minds to.
And I think the answer is as simple as it sounds like a platitude. We give to help people on the other side of the world because we can and because they're people we must.
Perhaps we could go even further: if we don't see "Japanese" or "American", we just see people in need and we reach out to help then our world becomes a closer one. A world further from war, a world further from hate.
Growing up, my mother would have said that's the "Christian" thing to do. I don't know how many Christians are in Japan, and I'm sure they have another way of thinking about it. But whatever gives Japanese schoolchildren to donate to a drive for New Orleans must be some of that same stuff that gives us to give to their Red Cross.
And that's good.