 | Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177 |
| Posted 1/18/2010 8:44 AM EST on tallahassee.com The question has been bothering me for almost a week. “Where does it end?” the caller asked. He had just read my blog on how our leaders – especially governmental – failed to act decisively, leaving homeless people out in the bitter and life-threatening cold. With so many needs in these tough times, he said, where does the public obligation to help end? That day, the earth shifted in Haiti, crushing – and now starving – tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of people. Where, indeed, does it end? The answer, I guess, is a matter of priorities and faith. No one person can answer that question for another. As city leaders and local community agencies gather tomorrow to assess how to better respond to a local cold crisis, I hope that they will consider both priorities and faith. I hope that they will consider not only “where does it end,” but also how we begin. The Rev. Michael Foley, pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Church, noticed a shining crucifix among the rubble shown in our front-page photograph from Haiti. He took that as a symbol, as if God were saying, “I’m still here,” and calling on the world to help. As the richest nation in the history of man, he said, it is a matter of duty and faith to do everything we can. The Rev. Pat Robertson saw things differently. He called the earthquake a “blessing in disguise” in one moment and later repeated what he called a “true story” about how the Haitian revolutionaries made a deal with devil while attempting to throw the French out. “And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' They kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got themselves free. Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.” Robertson said that last week while attempting to raise money for Haitian relief efforts on his show, “The 700 Club.” They had turned away from God, he said, and this is their punishment. Our obligation was to turn Haitians back to God. What then was that crucifix doing in the rubble? Did God somehow save only the Christians – or even certain kinds of Christians – and not others? According to the CIA’s The World Factbook, about 96 percent of Haitians are either Catholic or Protestant, with about 10 percent Baptists. The same report says more than half of the population also practices voodoo. It would be easy enough to ridicule Robertson for repeating as “true story” something for which there seems to be no historic basis. It has been told and retold, especially in the last couple of decades to explain why Haiti – the poorest country in our hemisphere with infant-mortality rates of more than 50 percent – has been allowed to suffer. It proves again that the bigger the lie the more the people will believe it. Does thinking that there are theological and not simply geological reasons for the horror that has occurred just 700 miles off the Florida coast make it easier to turn away when there are tough choices to be made about where our resources go? But Robertson did what we all do, or at least what many of us do. I hear it in the reactions to news reports all the time. When I wrote about our community leadership’s failure to respond to the needs of the freezing people sleeping on the streets, one person said, “Don’t you think some of these people could help themselves if they wanted to?” Another called to say, “Well, whose fault is it they are on the street? It’s not mine.” Like Robertson, we judge the victim before considering the need. Where does it end? I guess when it’s over, when either the need for help or our capacity to help is gone. Until then, maybe it never ends. But everyone has their own moral compass. Knowing what is the right thing to do is something for each person to decide for him or herself. You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com. You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook but you have to request to be my friend. |
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