thinking thursday : haiti

Here is my post on Facebook this morning: The people in Haiti love their children and parents and partners and lives just as we do. Lean toward them. Help in any way you can. Inaction is an action. Do something.

Six Ways You Can Help in Haiti : the author includes this note: Text "HAITI" to "90999" to donate $10 to the Red Cross – I believe in the Red Cross and have served on its National Diversity Council as well as on the board of the local chapter. Many people want to give clothing or goods, but in my experience with relief efforts, as well-meaning as we are, these items bog down the system and ultimately make things harder. Give your unneeded clothing to your local Goodwill and give monetary donations to the Red Cross.

A knitting blog sends up a "knit signal" for Haiti. Read her very clear description of why we should give unrestricted funds to relief agencies. (Thanks to Maxine Rothman)

To learn about Haiti, read Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer (Thanks to Terry Hartley for reminding me of this book)

Here are more ways to help.

I am grateful on this day that I am not Pat Robertson or Rush Limbaugh, both of whom have publicly blamed the earthquake in Haiti on the Haitian's "pact with the devil," and worse. To feel such animosity toward other human beings, and such arrogance, I cannot imagine. I believe fully in freedom of speech, but not in the wholesale marketing of hate. However, my pushing against Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh at this time only diminishes my ability to lean toward the Haitians who so desperately need help. I am reminded of my frustration at our country's administration in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the same sentiments–and priorities–must arise now:

"So here is my vow: I am not going to spend mental or physical energy blaming people for this unconscionable and undeniably incompetent response to this tragedy. No, not yet. No, to do that now does not honor those men and women and children who have yet to eat or drink, it does not honor those dead human beings with real lives and families who loved them and had to leave them floating in the floodwaters, a desperate and incomplete goodbye to the real and true and precious loves of their life. I cannot sit here with my cup of coffee and tasty scone and place blame on people who are desperately trying to help in the best way they can. No, I will save all that fury and helplessness and second-guessing for later. I will only offer constructive suggestions now until the last person is buried and the last person has been fed and showered and found. The more I ask authorities to respond to my allegations of blame, the less focused they are on the families still drowning by inches in their attics, and the more distance I can create between my own self and this tragedy. We are all accountable for this."