The island nation of Haiti has been devastated by major earthquake that has rocked the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Thousands have died, and upwards of a million people have had their lives forever changed.
As always, Americans have risen to help a fallen people with donations of money, clothing, volunteering time. Celebrities will gather their influence to ensure we do the right thing, and while this is an incredible show of generosity, every time a tragedy strikes a foreign land we are among the fore-front in response.
At risk of sounding like Buchannan or Limbaugh, what about the millions of people in America that need our help?
Granted, nothing can affect our basic human reaction to help someone in need especially in such a tragic situation such as a natural disaster, but why do we overlook the people we see everyday to help someone in another country we have never met? Thousands of homeless, hungry, and poor people in Oklahoma could benefit from any of our assistance, especially children born into those situations. I understand that many of the homeless are self-inflicted situations, drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc.,.. and that the panhandling teams in the metro area really put a bad face on the situation for those who genuinely need help.
I am not here to admonish anyone who feels compelled to donate anything at anytime. Volunteering and donating are good for the soul, all that I ask, is that you give overseas, please consider doing locally as well. I sent $10 to Haiti via a text message, and recently dropped off clothes at the City Rescue Mission, while neither were much, I really wish I could do more.
If you feel compelled to donate, either locally or abroad here are a few avenues…
American Red Cross
Habitat For Humanity
City Rescue Mission – Oklahoma City
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
