Maybe I should just exit Facebook altogether. Of course, then I might die from a little-known phenomenon known as social network deprivation, but it would be preferable to the agonizingly painful death my brain is suffering, a little condition I like to think of as Ignorance Abounds on Facebook.
This little gem made the rounds yesterday:
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.
Poverty and misery are everywhere, I'm not even going to argue that. It disturbs me to no end that we have children and adults in our own country who live in poverty. Can we think for a minute, though, of what happened in Haiti?
After a devastating event, the entire country's infrastructure (yes, Sarah Palin, it's pronounced inFRAstructure! Who knew!) is shattered. The normal channels for distribution of food and services no longer exists. The Haitian government confirmed yesterday that the death toll there has risen to over 150,000 people. It is expected to exceed 200,000, and one can only guess how many people will succumb not only to earthquake related injuries, but to starvation, thirst and disease. If these people do not receive help from the outside, they WILL die. Their own government is barely functioning, and unable to provide the help necessary.
So yes, there are children in America at this very moment who do not have enough to eat. But we have functioning food banks, a functioning welfare system, standing churches with soup kitchens. Right now, people in America have access to federally funded programs designed to provide assistance. Programs that are in buildings not collapsed from an earthquake. They have, certainly, access to potable water. They have neighbors and family members who are alive, not buried under rubble. Do our own citizens need and deserve our help? Of course they do. But I'm going to crawl WAYYYYYY out on a limb and postulate that their condition is nowhere NEAR as desperate as is the condition of those in Haiti. Not even close.
What really bothers me, though, is that the conservative and libertarian movements in this country really don't think that much of our poor citizenry. The Bush administration slashed social programs, resulting in a lot of families here in the U.S. falling through the cracks. The unchecked arrogance of Wall Street that the administrations both right and left over the past 75 years caused our economy to splinter and collapse, throwing millions of Americans in to disarray and desperation, losing homes and retirement dollars, wondering how we will make it on a shrinking Social Security administration. This same mindset that "we don't need to help others" is typically applied to our own welfare recipients. But those same poor souls become, in my opinion, convenient pawns when the call is sounded for us to help people in need outside our own borders.
I know that not *all* political conservatives feel this way. I know people from various political backgrounds who have served on missions overseas, who have friends or family who are in Haiti right now. They believe in the responsibility to our fellow man, regardless of country or culture. They understand that we are not just a globe of separate countries but a world of common humanity.
May God forgive us our arrogance.
