About a month ago, an earthquake devastated Haiti and took the lives of countless individuals. The confirmed death toll continues to rise and there are thousands still accounted for. The city is a mass grave, people unceremoniously buried without choice. Although the country has gotten better over the past few weeks, the country is in no way recovered or in good shape. People are still dying from untreated wounds. The lack of medical supplies and antibiotics is causing victims to develop severe infections that will go without proper attention. Babies are being born into an unsanitary environment, wrapped in dirty towels and delivered by a short-handed staff of medical personnel. "Aid stations" are without bandages and anti-septics and are over-crowded with unaided victims. Moreover, people are still buried in the rubble. The gravity of the situation only gets heavier as the list goes on.
When conservative talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh denounce the aid efforts by saying that we have already paid for relief through income taxes, he is missing the point. Yes, our tax dollars are paying for relief in Haiti but what he fails to realize is that it's not how much we send but on whether we OUGHT to send help owing to a responsibility we have. By making a remark like that, he is effectively down-playing the tragedy that has taken place. Thousands of people died and are still dying or still unaccounted for. Many were Haitians, fewer, but significantly enough, were American. But does that really matter in a time like this? This is a time when HUMANS are dying and in need of help. This is a time when it is no longer about other nations helping a nation in crisis. This is a time when brothers help brothers and sisters help sisters. We are all bound by the commonality of humanity. This is our obligation to help, not as "good" or "rich" nations, but as human beings. It is true that we are in a recession and we ourselves are struggling to maintain our living standards, but those living standards are FAR greater than what Haitians had PRIOR to the earthquake!
Critics of the efforts in Haiti, like Rush Limbaugh, need to get on a plane and fly to Haiti and experience the devastation first hand before making an egregious comment like that. It is people like him that are tearing the fabric of humanity. What's the point of being a powerful nation if we don't utilize that power to help create a better world for mankind?
