I just read a forum post from someone who was apologizing for their website being down (paid membership site). Apparently some data center in Houston had something go wrong and a huge portion of their equipment went dead. There was a fire, or an explosion, or something happened. I remember reading about it in the news on the web a couple of days ago but I don't remember the details.

Anyway, someone responded to this post and said, thanks for the heads up. Don't worry about it and luckily no one was hurt.

Is it just me or is that another one of these empty platitudes that don't mean anything? Of course is lucky, and a relief, that no one was hurt. However, on a personal level, does the fact that no one was hurt really mean anything to us? To the family and friends of someone that works at that data center, the fact that no one was hurt means something significant. The person they know could have been hurt, but wasn't. But to me, Joe Webuser, living thousands of miles away, do I really care that no one was hurt?

Obviously, as a moral human being, I never wish harm to come to another person. But for me to say, luckily no one was hurt, shouldn't it actually have a meaning for me? Else, aren't I just mouthing empty words with no sentiment behind it? If no one is hurt, then I can't connect with the tragedy on any kind of level. Its not that much different than a demolition that goes off safely. Building is damaged, life goes on. However, if someone IS hurt, then I can connect with the occurence on a human level because another person has been injured or killed, and while I don't know the victim personally, I can personalize it by thinking, what if that happened to my friend?

Luckily no one was hurt gets said a lot it seems. But I suspect that its just words without sentiment. Wouldn't a response on a forum feel more genuine if someone actually had been injured?