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Trying to grasp Haiti's need
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Trying to grasp Haiti's need
  I doubt if I can come anywhere near comprehending what it’s like in Haiti now. I try, though, every time I watch the news. I try to imagine the fear, the despair, the hunger and thirst, the exhaustion, the sleeplessness, the stench, the bugs. Searching for and not finding loved ones. The inability to find out what’s going on. The powerlessness.  All I have to draw on are the aftermaths of hurricanes Alicia and Ike. I spent a couple of weeks sweltering without electricity in both cases, and had to drive a long way to find ice. It made me feel vulnerable, and sorry for myself. The video from Haiti makes me ashamed that I complained. Electricity is the least of the Haitians’ concerns. There is no safe place to sleep, no water, no food, no transportation, no medical care. The incidence of malaria, dengue, HIV and tuberculosis in Haiti was high before the earthquake. So was malnourishment. One of the reasons I cannot imagine what it’s like in Haiti is that it isn’t just a city that’s devastated, or an area comparable to our county, or even a state. Their whole nation is ruined.  Try and imagine something that would stop our entire nation. I either can’t, or don’t want to. Haitians cannot look for any help from within its borders. It must depend “on the kindness of strangers.” That would be frightening too, I think. The U.S. is behaving as I like it to behave, for the most part. The government, from the White House to the states to small towns across the nation, are sending whatever help they can muster – medical supplies, food,water, skilled workers.  I can’t help thinking of the boatloads of Haitian refugees turned away from our country in 2004, when the fights among Aristide’s military troops and rebel forces were killing thousands of Haitians, and the survivors couldn’t find work, or food, or even safe places to hide. President Bush warned the Haitians not to come here to escape the political turmoil, that they’d be sent back. And they were, without hearings. Later in 2004, the violence caused Aristide himself to flee, and he remains in exile now in South Africa. I see, by the way, that Aristide now wishes to return to Haiti to help it rebuild. I’m afraid I suspect his motives. It isn’t just our government that’s reaching out to Haiti now. People everywhere are doing what they can to help, from donating money to pushing for permission to bring orphaned Haitian children here.  Catholic Charities and a number of South Florida immigrant rights organizations are heading up that push, and the Archdiocese of Miami reports that it has received so many calls from people willing to care for Haitian children, it cannot keep count. Some of you may remember the Pedro Pan operation that Catholic Charities organized and ran from 1960 to 1962. In all, 14,048 children were spirited alone to the U.S. mainland from Cuba, which at that time was engulfed in its own political turmoil.  Some of the children were later reunited with their families, if their families were able to make it here. Others went to foster homes or were adopted. Here’s what lifts my spirits: Many of the calls made to the Archdiocese of Miami by those wishing to care for at-risk Haitian children, came from “Pedro Pans” who remain grateful for their rescue, and want to pass it on. The kindness of strangers can be a beautiful thing.  |
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