Haiti: A Rant and A Rave

HAITI: A Rant, and A Rave
I am happy to donate all proceeds for the month on Etsy, and proceeds from art at kerrycoleart.com, as it is what I can give…we help because we can, in the ways we can and we have a heart for service in this country. It will be even more meaningful when third world countries can not only receive aid, but begin to create a system for themselves where they are able to sustain and eventually contribute to the global economy.
I hear complaints in the media about America not responding quickly enough, not doing enough~ and frankly it’s tiresome.  The U.S. always, always steps up in times of need, as we should and always will. We don’t need recognition, at the same time we don’t need to be bashed for not doing enough.
Here is just short list of quick twitch response we have given thus far…any credit…anyone in the media??
We are running their airport so all supplies can get there. We have sent in more than 10,000 troops to mobilize supplies and stabilize (not occupy, but stabilize) the region, we have been busy repairing a badly damaged seaport, so our Naval Hospital (USNS Comfort, and others out of Guantanamo Bay) can arrive with it’s 250 beds and staff of 560. The ship is slow, but on its way in it’s largest humanitarian mission in 20 years (we are ground guys, remember? Fault us for having decrepit ships, okay…15 knots an hour is pretty slow, but we are already there doing other stuff)
We (not including all the private and corporate donations) as a country have pledged $114,632,301…which is 13.75% of the total of all pledges combined.
China, on the other hand has pledged 4.4 million (reports vary from 1 million to 4.4 million) which comes in at 1.25% of the total…I’m just sayin…and India? Where are they?

I am proud of America, and of our response. I am happy to be in the company of like minded servants of good. I should leave it at that, but in thinking about the evolution and global economic sustainability of any country (which I would presume would be their goal, unless they don’t want to remain an independent nation, and go back to being a colony?) the following quote comes to mind…I didn’t write it, I just find it interesting.

“Poor people do poor people things, and rich people do rich people things. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.”  (anonymous)

There has already been a call out for all wealthy nations to cancel all debts owed by Haiti (called for last August, which were 1.9 billion prior to this disaster)
God bless all those nations who have erased the debt, all those who have a heart for service and were already there trying to help them, and who are reaching out now in whatever way they can, and may God bless Haiti in the rough road ahead.

Advertisement