Well............. let us look at it this way.....
There is a lot of poverty in New Orleans and in many places of the United States.... and we need to give there as well.....one of the reasons the US has so much poverty is cause we do not take care of....or care about "our own" unless there is a disaster ...... and we americans like to attach strings when we give....
People in haiti if they had 1/2 the income that "poverty level" individuals in the USA earned would think they were millionaires. Remember people in Haiti for the most part earn less than $2 US Dollars a day, that doesn't mean they are lazy, that doesn't mean things are cheap, it means that the people in Haiti are so poor even before the Earthquake, they were starving..but before the earthquake people just didn't seem to care. Haiti has had more hurricanes real real bad ones in the past 4 years then u can imagine and it barely if ever was mentioned on the news. If it were not for Bill Clinton and Dr Farmer pushing the UN and being special emissary's there it is a sad thing to say but ,,, it is highly possible the mainstream news and the general population would not be doing to much now.
Believe it or not there are actually people saying do not give money to Haiti,,it will never help them anyway....it is to much and they wont know what to do with it...they will be better off now that the earthquake has happened.....
Everyone is entitled to their opinion as we are all entitled to disagree or agree.....
Personally I think we should donate money whenever and as often as we possibly can,,,and not wait for a disaster to do it...
www.PIH.org is alwasy working hard,,so is habitat for humanity.org so is the red cross, and the goodwill and the salvation army, and just thousands of places that help in the US and internationally... I dont get hung up on an organizations religiousity all that much, cause when they are feeding the hungry and they are putting food on the plate, they are not saying....sorry it is for .......... granted they might evangelize during the supper....I think if left and right could just get together and work together to wipe out poverty and hunger it would be a thing of the past....
And I think if every person in this world who is by the worlds standards is living above the poverty line.... would donate 25 cents to end hunger....it would end.
Americans seem for some reason to think we are the only ones that ever help any other country. In truth that is rather wrong. go to
www.alertnet.org and look and see what people all over the world do.
Should we give more to "our own" yes,,we are not to good about giving to anyone especially "our own"
Think about it when u walk down a street in a city...u see a guy sleeping on the sidewalk what is your thought? lazy bum, drunk? druggie? How many of us really think ..."oh my that is my brother human who is down on his luck...let me go buy a meal and bring it to him??" not enough of us or the guy would not be asleep on the street.
Yesterday at work I was talking with a coworker...and I made the comment ...we are all about 45 days away from being homeless..so who are we to judge....She looked at me and said "Waht do u mean,,,I am not 45 days ..."
I responded so u tell me...you loose your job, your husband looses his job...how many weeks before the savings is wiped? Will the unemployment checks cover all the expenses? Will they cover all the bills? How long before you start getting behind on the electric? the oil? the credit cards? the mortgage?
She looked t me with panic in her eyes.....then she said Oh My God, I never thought about it like that....my family can be homeless...."
I nodded and walked away.....cause everyone of us can be homeless....and once we realize that we are a lot more inclined to give to organizations that serve the poor, the hungry, the homeless....selfish reason to give, perhaps but at least u give...