Are We Human?

Opinion — REAL POWER.TV

Did We Forget Garden Valley — or Did We Just Not Give a Damn?

By Pastor Kenneth L. Keith

Are we human?

I’m not asking if we are alive. I’m asking if we are human.

Because being alive means you have a heartbeat. Being human means somebody else’s heartbreak still has the ability to move you.

On June 23, 2025, an explosion ripped through Rainbow Terrace in Cleveland’s Garden Valley neighborhood. Forty-four apartment units were impacted. More than 120 people were displaced. Families lost homes, possessions and a sense of security in a matter of moments.

And ultimately, Cordale Sheffield lost his life.

Sheffield had already been thrown from the building by the explosion. But when he realized his stepdaughter was still inside, he went back into the fire to save her.

Think about that.

While everybody else was trying to get out, he went back in.

Maybe that is the picture of humanity we need to see again.

Because more than a year later, I’m wondering:

Did we forget Garden Valley — or did we just not give a damn?

The investigation has now concluded without identifying an exact cause. Officials say a natural-gas leak was likely involved, but the final determination remains “undetermined.”

Meanwhile, families who survived it are still asking questions.

And the rest of us?

Life moved on.

The cameras left. The headlines changed. The social-media posts stopped.

But trauma doesn’t disappear because the news cycle changes.

There was a time when we understood community.

When somebody’s house burned down, the neighborhood responded.

When somebody’s refrigerator was empty, somebody brought groceries.

When somebody died, you didn’t need an invitation to show up.

We might not have had much money, but we had each other.

Now we can watch somebody lose everything from the comfort of our phones, type “Praying 🙏🏾,” scroll to the next video and never think about them again.

When did somebody else’s suffering become entertainment?

We have become so consumed with ourselves that our mentality has become: As long as it didn’t happen to me.

That is dangerous.

Because “every man for himself” cannot build a community.

Government has responsibility. Property owners have responsibility. Institutions have responsibility. Churches have responsibility.

But let me make somebody uncomfortable:

SO DO WE.

We cannot demand a better Cleveland while refusing to become better Clevelanders.

We cannot complain about broken communities while walking past broken people.

We cannot keep asking, “What are they going to do?”

At some point, the question becomes:

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?

Maybe you cannot rebuild 44 apartments.

Help one family.

Maybe you cannot feed an entire neighborhood.

Feed one person.

Maybe you cannot change Cleveland.

Change your block.

Because we will never get better if we refuse to do better.

And doing better cannot just be collective.

It has to become individual.

It starts with me.

It starts with you.

It starts when somebody else’s pain becomes important enough for us to interrupt our comfort.

Cordale Sheffield ran back into the fire because somebody he loved was still inside.

Maybe Cleveland needs some people willing to metaphorically run back in.

Back into our neighborhoods.

Back into our communities.

Back toward the forgotten.

Back toward people everybody else has moved on from.

Garden Valley should never become just another tragedy Cleveland survived.

Those families mattered then.

They matter now.

So I’ll ask one more time:

ARE WE HUMAN?

Because humanity isn’t proven by what we post when tragedy happens.

Humanity is proven by whether we are still there when everybody else stops watching.