Letter to the Editor:

The day dawned frosty; the trees coated white. It’s as cold as a wet day can be. I finished a bowl of hot oatmeal with two pieces of buttered toast/strawberry jam and an orange. While I ate, I watched people starving in Haiti. As the camera panned the city of Port Au Prince, I realized the scope and magnitude of the disaster. Usually the cameras focus on a green area right outside the Presidential Palace but that is like focusing on someone’s lawn. The city is huge and there are thousands without food or water.

I thought about the 40 extra lbs I carry. I realized how, in comparison we in the middle class are really the wealthy. Because I have a roof, a meal and clean water, I am the wealthy.

I and every thinking person have a responsibility to do something good for those with less. Many don’t care. Many feel pity, which is as useless a thing as can be. Doing something may be as small or as large as a widow’s mite. It may be the goodness and kindness of hands on helping or sending money. It may be the faithfulness of prayer (real prayer; not the kind that never happens) It may be the self control of conserving and learning to live a simple life involving less consumption. There are many who believe it is God’s judgement upon a Godless Haiti that this devastation has happened. “Serves em right for all that voodoo.” Some believe because those people in Haiti are not white middle class “pull yourself up by your bootstraps people”, they are not worth helping or saving. “Judge not lest ye be judged”. God hates lukewarm, wishy washy nations (check out the 3rd chapter of the book of Revelation) So, I think to myself, for God’s sake, do something. Do some large or small thing. In the end, every individual will be accountable. If we do nothing, we will bring disaster upon our own heads.

More and more countries see the US as a gluttonous, immoral, Godless nation. We are, after all, the country that entertains itself by watching “The Biggest Loser”. We supersize every fast food until we are a nation of the morbidly obese. We abort unwanted children like bowel movements. We allow our children to feed on the garbage of television as though we as parents are not paying the cable bill. We worship at the alter of Wal Mart. It is easy to judge the other political party, the other country or the other person, turn a blind eye, blame the President as though he is the antichrist and do little or nothing to change the future. We may want to be oblivious but God is not. In the end there will be no excuses. Remember Galations 5:22 “the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace patience, goodness,gentleness, kindness, faithfulness and self control”. To whom much is given, much is expected. As a friend once said, “Humility is when you correct yourself. Humiliation is when you have to be corrected”. We are sitting on our own fault lines.

Daun Keefe

Tama