What We Have Wrought

Like most I can think of little else but Haiti and the all to predictable situation on the ground there. In a few hours we are going to the Varick Street Detention Center to press for the release of Haitian immigrant rights activist Jean Montrevil. I just read that the 30, 000 Haitians facing deportation will be given some kind of amnesty so they can work and send support back home. Thats great but what does it mean that 30,000 Haitians are facing deportation? The United States is a former occupier and constant exploiter of Haiti-now we will strain once again toward more white knighthood-Bill Clinton is already putting on his armor and Hilary is on her way home talking about "biblical" catastrophe. How can the leaders of the free world stand there and express "disbelief" "shock" or amazement when their policies created the economic conditions we now see playing out so vividly? It just makes me sick. What sentimental creatures we are.

We have rejected the desperation of Haiti so many times-- now we will save them! But why does it take calamity and catastrophe to generate compassion? Why not the hardship of everyday life, the quiet impossiblity of feeding a family in what is often called, unbelievably, an "indigent nation." How many boats like the one pictured here have been turned away from  our southern coasts, and how many of those 30,000 immigrants are being held in privatized for-profit ICE prisons!

Bless the people and animals of Haiti, the many plants and wonders of nature that flourish there. May their suffering be eased and their recovery be without obstacle. And as for us, the so called Christian Nation may we learn to love before the stench of death distracts us from our pillaging.