As Haiti's Woes Grow, So Does U.S. Disgrace

There's one Bush pattern that needs to change before the president leaves office in January.

Once again, life has become desperate in flood-ravaged, desperately poor Haiti, and the United States stands by disinterested in a calamity affecting tens of thousands of people.

Tropical Storm Hanna is soaking the flood-plagued Caribbean island nation and causing another wave of mudslides and floods, making worse the calamity Haitians have been living since the middle of August when Hurricane Faye tore through the country.

Stories yesterday pointed out that overcrowded hospitals were being flooded, tens of thousands of the luckiest people were in some kind of shelters, and that there were entire families stranded on rooftops, not begging, but screaming for help.

On the same day, the Bush administration announced it would seek to immediately send $1 billion in aid to Georgia to help rebuild that country unnerved by Russian intervention in a brewing civil war.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Haitians have no homes, no food and no hope.



This isn't the first time this ailing nation has been overlooked, Four years ago, the misery was nearly the same after two late-summer hurricanes left more than 80,000 people with absolutely nothing to eat. Disease was rampant as dead bodies floated everywhere, and the government couldn't even find the machinery or fuel to create mass graves for thousands of dead.

The United States provided $60,000 in aid. It was embarrassing and cruel.

There's not even a mention of any aid being funneled to the Haitians this time.

If for no other reason, the United States should selfishly donate all they can to Haitians to prevent more rounds of boat people descending on American shores.

But the best reason for us to help the Haitians is that this poor, disaster-racked country desperately needs generous help from the United States, and every able country in the world, to save hundreds of thousands of people from horrible fates.

The United States needs to give now.

Source: AuroraSentinel.Com