We can send a man to the moon.
But we can’t help a handful of orphans who are starving to death right before our eyes, in a place not far from our shores.
Look what we have become.
I wrote a diary two days ago about what is going on in Haiti and linked to Kyle’s post over at Citizen Orange
Kyle has some updates, and the news is not good:
News from Haiti is not getting much better. According to the Associated Press the death toll from Hanna is now at 61 bringing the total deaths close to 200. The latest story leads with an even more desperate headline than before:
Chaos, desperation, from Hanna's floods in Haiti
GONAIVES, Haiti --The convoy rumbled out of the U.N. base toward a flooded, starving and seething city Thursday, carrying some of the first food aid since Tropical Storm Hanna drowned Gonaives in muddy water three days ago.
Hungry children at three orphanages were waiting for the canvas-topped trucks, loaded with warm pots of rice and beans and towing giant tanks of drinking water.
But the food never arrived Thursday. (read more)
Associated Press (4 September, 2008)
Kyle goes on to provide some links to organizations trying to help. And I hope anyone reading this will click on those links.
But this is not an action diary in that sense.
The only action I ask for is that you spread this story around to as many people as you can. One way is to digg or stumble or reddit Kyle’s post. The internet is a tool and this kind of software has the potential to change the world in how we provide information to each other.
I think about what we could be doing if we weren’t fighting the assholes that folks like Sarah Palin represent and feed while others starve.
They speak of compassion but they act out of fear and greed and hatred.
They always do the opposite of what they say. They foul the very words we hold precious – love, decency, compassion, courage, honor.
They are a poison in our country.
So there are a few hundred orphans in Haiti who are starving and no one can think of how to help them, how to get food to them.
What is wrong with this picture?
We have built technological marvels that our ancestors would think were magic.
And we can’t help a few hundred orphans.
We have the power to destroy the entire earth.
And we can’t get food and medicine to folks on a tiny island.
I know this is the political season, I know all about politics and getting Obama elected and then we’ll be able to do a better job helping others.
So I’m swimming upstream with this diary, I know that.
I think of what we could be doing if it weren’t for this poison in the land that takes up so much of our attention that little children are starving and no one can get food to them.
I hate Sarah Palin and her poisonous speech. I can’t be objective about it, can’t be rational about it. I hate her for being willing to spread this poison wholesale via our media, another technology that could be telling folks about these few children in an orphanage who are starving right in front of our eyes.
I hate Sarah Palin and all the other Sarah Palins out there who are preventing us from doing what makes life worth living – creating, building, instead of destroying, tearing down.
I’m sorry for this rant of a diary, I don’t know how writing this will help those children. I don’t know. I just had to at least bear witness.
I have a hard time when it comes to children suffering. I don’t know why this story in particular activated that feeling in me to this extent. Maybe because I feel that if this story were covered adequately here in the US, there'd be so many smart people who could find a way to help, we'd gather together to help instead of go to war or go shopping. We'd be able to solve problems by putting our heads together. We'd have the motivation and the inspiration to help these children.
I hate these cynical bastards. I am not going to deny it any more. I don’t like feeling hate. But I hate them.