Help for Haiti
It seems inappropriate to post a blog about deforestation or climate change when as a global population we are faced with the utter catastrophe of the earthquake in Haiti. There aren’t really words that can adequately describe the death and destruction that has become the every day reality of an entire nation virtually overnight. Everyone has seen videos and pictures and heard devastating and horrific accounts of life lost and life attempting to be lived amid such chaos.
These images and stories are in many ways the kind that you want to immediately tune out or turn away from. Akin to television advertisements for UNICEF or ASPCA, such horrors brought into living rooms and onto kitchen counters can often effect in an audience the opposite of their intended purpose – people turn away because of the disturbance, not because they don’t care, but because they are shaken or unsettled.
Since the earthquake, however, we haven’t turned away. As a planet, as a people, we have gone into crisis management mode, doing anything and everything we can to offer support. Honestly, the number of TV promos, text message donations and everyday stories of individuals dropping everything to go and help is astounding. This has never happened before. That previous sentence applies to the quake itself, but if you look at it a different way it also applies to the coordinated and comprehensive help being given to Haiti in a time of ultimate need. The outpouring of support for Haiti is unlike any response I’ve seen to any other tragedy in my lifetime, including New Orleans, the Tsunami, and September 11th.
Over the past month, I’ve seen Michelle Obama television ads, received and sent several donation texts, heard Conan O’Brien pleading for support and watched local bars run fundraising events to do whatever they are capable of to help the people of Haiti survive and rebuild. It’s sometimes tragic to think that it takes crisis to elicit this kind of response, but it is this we got you answer to a call for help that we are capable of when backs are against the wall. But it isn’t always tragedy, President Obama’s election campaign for example shown a glowing light on the power of organized and motivated human beings; the earthquake in Haiti has galvanized that power into a staying force determined to be there until things get better.
As humans, we need to look at Haiti and realize how capable we really are when push comes to shove. Birthright Earth is founded on this innate human quality. We are able to change, we are able to help one another, we are able to maintain a serious focus on serious issues until they are resolved. It doesn’t require tragedy or historic proportions on the outset, an issue like climate change is all around us everyday. When push comes to shove, which it has, there are two paths we can take – allow climate change to become historically tragic or act as we know we can and achieve a historic victory over the issue of our generation.
See It, Save It
- Tim
