I don't participate in political discussions anymore. At all. Mostly because the ensuing arguments are never worth it, and partially because I just do not have the mental energy that those types of discussions demand.
However - in light of recent events, I need to get a few things off of my chest.
Mr. Sign-Holder on West Market Street in Warren. I see your sign says "HAITI - NO! LET'S TAKE CARE OF AMERICA FIRST" - let me ask you something: What do you do to take care of your fellow Americans? Do you work in soup kitchens? Do you volunteer time and/or materials to your local Habitat For Humanity chapter? What about donating food and/or items to the Warren Mission on a regular basis? Meals On Wheels? No? Pay your taxes? Oh, sorry. Ah, okay. Well, I pay taxes as well, and my delicate sensibilities and Liberal bleeding heart are offended by the notion that we should let 50,000 people die while we sit on our fat asses watching.
I'm quite certain you're the same type of personality that I encounter EVERY SINGLE DAY that seems to think that the government welfare system is flawed, and our benefits are too much. You may even think that anyone who uses it lives the high life while you bust your ass to get by. Let me tell you something - I must have done it wrong. I didn't have the imaginary Cadillac Escalades that you see driven by "Welfare Moms". I also never saw one ounce of help from anyone who wasn't responsible for my very existence. In fact, what I saw was disgust from people in the grocery stores. Help Americans first? Surely, you jest. It does not behoove the American Patriot at large to help his fellow man. What behooves him is to judge. We either judge those we should be helping, or judge others for helping them. Or maybe we feel sorry for them. A bit of sadness because we could be or have been in their same situation. Yet, just like now - we don't make a move to help. We just watch while they flounder. Refusing to help because that's OUR MONEY. It has nothing to do with who it is, and everything to do with selfishness. Change Haiti to New Orleans, and it's the same thing.
You are the same type of personality who claims that we just HAD to invade Iraq because the Iraqi people needed liberating, and didn't know what was best for them. Dictatorships are all they know, it was up to AMERICA to show them a better way, yes? And what happens when we've virtually destroyed an entire culture and country? SEND MORE TROOPS! SEND MORE AID! They need to know the virtues of a democracy.
In regards to the recent status I've seen floating around Facebook about the telethons. Does anyone here remember Hurricane Katrina? What about the World Trade Center? Don't you remember the telethons? The charity drives? THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN DONATIONS?! Or do you conveniently forget this when another country needs our help? Not liberating. Not protection from a centuries old enemy - because we have something to gain. But a country who is DYING without our help?
Let me understand this - we only help those who don't want our help, because they don't know any different. But if NATURE has a hand in it, and NOT The Axis of Evil - we should do nothing?
For 31 years I have heard from people that our job as Americans is to be the "Big Brother" of the world. If we see some small country being picked on (Kuwait), we must intervene on their behalf. Wars are necessary evils. I get it. But we should only stick our necks out if we stand to lose something. Oil.
We went to Saudi Arabia to protect Kuwait from Iraq. Because they had oil. We went to Afghanistan to find Osama Bin Laden and make him pay for the attacks on American soil that killed thousands. How did we end up in Iraq? WMD? Really? Okay.
But we shouldn't help Haiti. Why? Because helping them doesn't reward us in any way. We don't satisfy our vengeance, our oil supplies, or any trade at all. Haiti's never done anything for us, right? Nor have they done anything to us, right? So - there's no reason.
How many countries sent aid during Hurricane Katrina? Do any of you remember the numerous telethons set up and hosted by the same celebrities - strictly to garner donations for the people affected by it?
I'm not sure about anyone other than myself, but I can't sit and chastise the Americans who DO donate time or money or items. I can't sit and watch the television reports or read the newspapers and see that TENS of THOUSANDS of people are dead and dying from this disaster and think that we are WRONG or MISGUIDED in even thinking about helping them.
I'm not really as angry as I appear to be, because I've long since become ambivalent toward such attitudes. You'll never change their minds, and arguing does nothing but fuel the fire. But every single day I have to drive past that sign. The sign that is posted in the front yard of a house that is in a low income area. An area that is rife with crime and poverty. Stores have closed in this neighborhood, to avoid the armed robberies that became pandemic. And living in the midst of ALL of this, they would wish to deny others of anything?
Meh. Rant is not over, but it's paused.
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