I enjoy Facebook. It's a cool way to keep up with friends and family without...you know....actually having to see them! It's much easier to ignore someone on Facebook than it is to ignore them in person or during a phone conversation. There's always that convenient little red button up at the top of the screen that offers me the escape from whichever person happens to be annoying me that day. If you know me you know that someone usually annoys me on a daily basis. I'm easily annoyed what can I say?
Anyway, there is occasionally a post from some random person or other that annoys me enough that I find it impossible to ignore. Lately, it's been the postings about Haiti. I've seen this one more than once and it honestly makes me want to reach through the computer screen and choke the offender who posted it.
"Shame on you America: the only country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment - yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations. 99% of people won't have the guts to copy and repost this."
Shame on you America? Really? The help that we've provided to Haiti (and to other countries who have previously been devasted by natural disaster) is part of what makes me proud to be an American. Of course things aren't perfect in our own country. No matter who is in office, no matter how hard we try there will always be problems. Yes, there are hungry people, yes there are homeless people, and yes our current health system sucks beyond belief. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't help other people. Does the person who originally wrote this really believe that we are the only country that has homeless, starving, and/or medically untreated/under treated people who aired this telethon? Umm hello moron....lots of countries aired this telethon and you can bet your behind that in each and every one of those countries there are people who are homeless, starving or lacking in medical care. I wonder if those other countries have people there who are so unwilling to hope like there are here.
By this logic you shouldn't help anyone else unless things are completely perfect in your own life. If everyone went by that "logic" no one would help anyone else ever! Sure there are plenty of things I wish were better in my own life but when I sit down and think about it I realize how damn lucky I am. I have 2 beautiful children, an amazing husband, a great family and wonderful friends. That right there is much more than many people have. So why shouldn't I help when I can?
What do people who don't want to help expect the people of Haiti to do? We're talking about a country the size of Maryland that, prior to the earthquake, had over 300,000 orphans and over 50% of their population is under the age of 18. Do these people expect all of the litle orphans to rise up and rebuild their country or do would the rather see the entire country die out? This isn't something that they can ever recover from on their own. There were likely over 100,000 people killed in that earthquake. Do you get that? 100,000 people!
What people also seem to ignore is the fact that Haiti sent $36,000 to the United States in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. While that may not sound like a lot of money you have to take into consideration that it came from the poorest country in the western hemispere where most people live on less that $2 a day. Even most of our poor live on more than that.
These people are hurt, starving, and dying. How can we deny them help? Can you honestly look at the footage of the wreckage there, the pictures of people frantically trying to dig out their loved ones, pictures of children crying in the streets, the news coverage showing dead bodies strewn about the streets and really deny these people help?
I'd really like to ask the people who have posted this FB quote what they have done for the Americans that they say need so much help. My guess would be a big fat nothing. Some of them probably don't even bother to vote. The most they can do is sit around whining about the state of our nation. To those people I say get up off your own ass and do something about it.
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