On Haiti

My fellow Americans,

You should be ashamed of yourselves. Many of you are complaining about the efforts of your countrymen to help Haiti through this disaster, saying that we should not help others because we have problems within our own borders that need to be addressed. You disgust me. I agree, we do have problems, huge ones. Our poverty rate is unacceptable. The conditions in which many of our elderly live are unacceptable. The sheer number of homeless wandering the streets is devastating. We have small children that go to school starving, and come home to a meager supper that probably couldn’t even sustain a household pet. And so, you say, before we help this earthquake torn country, we should take care of our own.

Let me ask you, what the fuck are you doing to solve these problems? Are you willing to donate your valuable time, energy, and resources to help those around you who are suffering, or are you content to look past them as though they don’t exist? Every time you avert your eyes from a homeless man in filthy rags on the street begging for your change, you are affirming your cowardice. I understand you don’t want to give him your change because “he’s only going to buy booze with it”. Who the fuck are you to say that? And if that is how you feel, what’s stopping you from going to the nearest convenience store or fast food place and getting the poor man a cheap meal? Is five dollars and ten minutes of your time really so precious to you? You say you have nothing, that you can’t afford it. Bullshit. Say that when you’re buying your cigarettes, your alcohol, your lottery tickets and lattes you HYPOCRIT.

You don’t have money? Fine. You have time. Go ahead, tell me that with your 40 hour a week job you’re too busy to do anything. Like hell you are, you selfish son of a bitch. There are 128 hours left in your week after that. There are 88 hours after you factor in 8 hours of sleep a night. You mean to tell me that with 88 hours a week spent neither asleep or at work, you don’t have two or three hours a week to devote to some kind of volunteer work or charitable organization? You show me someone who says that and I will show you a heartless liar. I promise you, there is a Boys and Girls club near you. There is a soup kitchen, there is a Salvation Army, there is a hospital, a homeless shelter, hell, there’s a SCHOOL near you. You have no excuse.

Do you really think that those who are donating to Haiti do nothing here? You fools. Those who are moved to donate to Haiti are the same people who donate and volunteer within their own borders as well. I suggest to you all that it is those who are most opposed to helping those that have been plunged into this crisis who do the least to help out their own country. If you really care about your fellow Americans who are suffering and disadvantaged, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

I am a firm believer that if you choose not to vote, you have no right to criticize the government. I also firmly believe that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem, and have no right to speak on matters in which you do not participate. I think that those of you who protest aid to Haiti do so to mask your own cowardice and selfishness, and you should be ashamed of yourselves. I know that I am deeply ashamed of you.