Though the uproar over Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill has been a focus for many UW-Whitewater students, faculty and staff, we must take time to support a much larger issue.

When an earthquake is strong enough to be read on a seismometer half way across the world, it’s obvious millions of people will be affected. Whether it was the 8.9 magnitude earthquake centered just off the east coast of Honshu, Japan, or the tsunami that followed killing tens of thousands of people, parts of northeastern Japan were devastated by the natural disaster which occurred last Friday.