en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/767294 Comments by romagnic https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/christian-invaders-the-turnaround__trashed/#IDComment68436591 I have always tried to empathize with the Middle Eastern side of these wars. I can remember arguing with my history teacher and entire ninth grade class about whether or not we should or should not have invaded Iraq. Being from southwestern Pennsylvania, part of Pennsyltucky, I remember the phrase "make the whole thing a parking lot" being thrown around a lot. Make the whole thing a parking lot? I was young, but I understood that this was another country too, they had people there just as there were people in my country. On what grounds could we make the whole thing a parking lot? I remember people telling me that we were there because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. How quickly do we forget? This WMD argument was everywhere. This was the president's excuse, it was all over the news, and thus it was taken as truth. Those who made this up never even received retribution for it. They invaded and devastated an entire country with this excuse. We have weapons of mass destruction. When I was in class on Thursday though, I really felt differently than ever before. I kept thinking that we invaded Iraq supposedly because they were a threat to our country. "Got to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here." I remember that phrase being thrown around too. Obviously it worked, people were afraid and thus the leader got to act as they pleased. Here is the other side of things though, something that I really saw for the first time Thursday. That is real life to the people of Iraq. We were afraid of Al Queada possibly attacking our country, but the people of Iraq had a real fear, they had to deal with the biggest, most powerful military in the world attacking their country, in actuality! That really "made me feel some kind of way" to quote Sam. We had a perceived fear while they had and have to deal with a real fear! The example that Sam gave about the Chinese invading our country was really good. It got a lot of people (me included) pretty pissed, and rightfully so. It's pretty sad that religion, that which is "holy", is a leading cause of all of this conflict. Really? God? Christianity, Islam, Judaism, all of these beliefs stem from the same source. Can't they see this whole that they share instead of the divisions that keep them separate? I am a human and I want peace and happiness. You are a human and because I am a human, I know that you want the same. Shouldn't that unite us more than the divisions that keep us separate? If any holy war brings an end to this world, it's cause will result from failing to realize this, that we are all the same. Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:22:37 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/christian-invaders-the-turnaround__trashed/#IDComment68436591 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/the-white-minorities__trashed/#IDComment65607288 This is an interesting issue to look at, ever since the arrival of Europeans to America, we have always been the majority here. We maintain our position at the top pretty well. Even when we are no longer the majority as this article suggests, we will still be the largest minority. Instead of all white people accounting for a larger population than all "minorities", we will simply be a larger minority. Because we are all different races, if you want to look at it like that, then we will only be the largest minority. This probably scares a lot of people though, Sarah Palin will soon be urging us to take back our country. Race is race, we need to start accepting that there are other people in this country. We complain about illegal immigrants, but in all honesty, when they have the opportunity to come here to work and make money and live a better life, can we seriously blame them? They take a majority of manual labor jobs because we would rather compete with one another to work at a desk. Whenever this country does become more ethnically diverse, we will need to compensate to this new population. Hopefully we will have a more diverse government by the time whites become a minority. We already have a bunch of old white men primarily making decisions for us, so how much worse could it be if we have some different representation? We are all here in someone else's land, technically we are all illegal immigrants. Indians make up one of the smallest minorities in this country, and they still manage to make it, so I think white people will be alright.__The article mentions that the Hispanic population is growing most rapidly, while the white population is shrinking. I think it will be pretty cool to see this population grow in my lifetime. The majority of Hispanics come here for work, so how can we deny them the jobs that no one else will take? Just grant them citizenship and stop complaining about how they are overrunning our country because this is all borrowed land. We have exploited the most sacred thing to the indigenous population here, Mother Earth. With out economy quickly changing and technology excelling at such a fast pace, we cannot expect the United States to always stay the same. When we have to account the majority, which will soon be made up of minorities, policies will have to change to accommodate these people. As the old white population shrinks, higher level jobs will also need to be replaced. There will only be so many white people, so more and more of these jobs will be filled by people of color. Fri, 2 Apr 2010 20:25:21 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/the-white-minorities__trashed/#IDComment65607288 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/is-this-just-a-few-bad-apples__trashed/#IDComment63520158 Is this really what we have come to? When people are being personally attacked, it is not about right wing or left wing, health care bill or no health care bill, this is a matter of right versus wrong. I like to consider myself somewhere in the middle, though I tend to lead towards the left because most people in this country that call themselves conservatives or Republicans are ill-informed but will stubbornly back their opinion until the day that they die. "I ain't givin' up my freedom because some Negro told me what to do." Led by the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, these people are being told so vehemently to oppose the Obama administration that there is no way that they will ever be able to see the entire issue on things like the health care bill. Fox News tells them that it is bad, so instead of thinking for themselves, they instead make signs to oppose it and threaten our congressmen. We put up with eight years of the Bush/Cheney administration, and as a result we are involved in two ill-advised wars and are over a trillion dollars in debt. How easily we forget our history. Give Obama a break; just because he wants to try something different does not make him a socialist. The majority of these people do not even know what socialism is, because if they did, then they would not be holding these signs. Socialism calls for equality. Karl Marx developed his socialist ideas because he saw so much corruption in the capitalist system. Obviously, socialist systems have failed in the past, but are they really that much worse than the capitalist system that we live under? Like the article said that was posted earlier this year, these people are voting against their own interests. The conservative, 'real Americans' are the ones speaking out against the health care bill, yet a majority of them do not have health care. Socialism says that we all get an equal piece of the pie, what is wrong with that? We need to find a middle point somewhere, because capitalism is failing us just as badly. In a country with so much money, there should not be so many poor people, and Obama is trying to level the playing field a little, but he is being met with resistance from the exact people that he is trying to help. Open your eyes! This administration may have its flaws, just as the last administration did. But protesters are not giving Obama a chance. They are shutting down his ideas before they have a chance to see them develop. Opposition to this administration is so intense that it is splitting this country in two, as is evident from this article. Obama is responsible for the welfare of the most powerful country in the world at a point in history where we have become very vulnerable, just give him a chance. If it doesn't work out, you'll know how we felt when Bush finally left office. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:43:46 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/is-this-just-a-few-bad-apples__trashed/#IDComment63520158 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/is-this-just-a-few-bad-apples__trashed/#IDComment63520338 Is this really what we have come to? When people are being personally attacked, it is not about right wing or left wing, health care bill or no health care bill, this is a matter of right versus wrong. I like to consider myself somewhere in the middle, though I tend to lead towards the left because most people in this country that call themselves conservatives or Republicans are ill-informed but will stubbornly back their opinion until the day that they die. "I ain't givin' up my freedom because some Negro told me what to do." Led by the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, these people are being told so vehemently to oppose the Obama administration that there is no way that they will ever be able to see the entire issue on things like the health care bill. Fox News tells them that it is bad, so instead of thinking for themselves, they instead make signs to oppose it and threaten our congressmen. We put up with eight years of the Bush/Cheney administration, and as a result we are involved in two ill-advised wars and are over a trillion dollars in debt. How easily we forget our history. Give Obama a break; just because he wants to try something different does not make him a socialist. The majority of these people do not even know what socialism is, because if they did, then they would not be holding these signs. Socialism calls for equality. Karl Marx developed his socialist ideas because he saw so much corruption in the capitalist system. Obviously, socialist systems have failed in the past, but are they really that much worse than the capitalist system that we live under? Like the article said that was posted earlier this year, these people are voting against their own interests. The conservative, 'real Americans' are the ones speaking out against the health care bill, yet a majority of them do not have health care. Socialism says that we all get an equal piece of the pie, what is wrong with that? We need to find a middle point somewhere, because capitalism is failing us just as badly. In a country with so much money, there should not be so many poor people, and Obama is trying to level the playing field a little, but he is being met with resistance from the exact people that he is trying to help. Open your eyes! This administration may have its flaws, just as the last administration did. But protesters are not giving Obama a chance. They are shutting down his ideas before they have a chance to see them develop. Opposition to this administration is so intense that it is splitting this country in two, as is evident from this article. Obama is responsible for the welfare of the most powerful country in the world at a point in history where we have become very vulnerable, just give him a chance. If it doesn't work out, you'll know how we felt when Bush finally left office. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:43:46 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/is-this-just-a-few-bad-apples__trashed/#IDComment63520338 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/is-this-just-a-few-bad-apples__trashed/#IDComment63503476 Is this really what we have come to? When people are being personally attacked, it is not about right wing or left wing, health care bill or no health care bill, this is a matter of right versus wrong. I like to consider myself somewhere in the middle, though I tend to lead towards the left because most people in this country that call themselves conservatives or Republicans are ill-informed but will stubbornly back their opinion until the day that they die. "I ain't givin' up my freedom because some negro told me what to do." Led by the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, these people are being told so vehemently to oppose the Obama administration that there is no way that they will ever be able to see the entire issue on things like the health care bill. Fox News tells them that it is bad, so instead of thinking for themselves, they instead make signs to oppose it and threaten our congressmen. We put up with eight years of the Bush/Cheney administration, and as a result we are involved in two ill-advised wars and are over a trillion dollars in debt. How easily we forget our history. Give Obama a break, just because he wants to try something different does not make him a socialist. The majority of these people do not even know what socialism is, because if they did, then they would not be holding these signs. Socialism calls for equality. Karl Marx developed his socialist ideas because he saw so much corruption in the capitalist system. Obviously, socialist systems have failed in the past, but are they really that much worse than the capitalist system that we live under? Like the article said that was posted earlier this year, these people are voting against their own interests. The conservative, 'real Americans' are the ones speaking out against the health care bill, yet a majority of them do not have health care. Socialism says that we all get an equal piece of the pie, what is wrong with that? We need to find a middle point somewhere, because capitalism is failing us just as badly. In a country with so much money, there should not be so many poor people, and Obama is trying to level the playing field a little, but he is being met with resistance from the exact people that he is trying to help. Open your eyes! This administration may have its flaws, just as the last administration did. But protesters are not giving Obama a chance. They are shutting down his ideas before they have a chance to see them develop. Opposition to this administration is so intense that it is splitting this country in two, as is evident from this article. Obama is responsible for the welfare of the most powerful country in the world at a point in history where we have become very vulnerable, just give him a chance. If it doesn't work out, you'll know how we felt when Bush finally left office. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:01:18 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/is-this-just-a-few-bad-apples__trashed/#IDComment63503476 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/when-do-we-do-or-say-something__trashed/#IDComment59668868 This is an interesting subject. It's not my place, when is it my place? Our country is founded on standing up for ourselves, for what is right, as we did to the British. We have a righteous responsibility instilled in us. Of course we had slavery then too, so we have a biased righteousness. With this history of slavery, even though we admit that we are not a racist country still, we are. Just as independence and liberty are written in our history, privilege is as well. If we are being treated fairly, and our family is being treated fairly, why worry about a stranger? This is the reason for the answer given in class that it's "not my place". We know it's wrong, but we have become too damn apathetic and self-centered to do anything about it. Having visited other countries, I think it is safe to say that we are a pretty introverted bunch. In Italy, people acknowledge each other, good or bad. We simply ignore one another. I don't know if it's because we're afraid of each other or what. Our general attitude towards strangers is that they are...strangers. Strangers are bad, that is what we have always been taught. We don't help others because we don't know them. It is is not right, but it is the truth. It should be our place though. This is the reason I think we have fallen into our poor economic situation. We want others to take care of it. We trusted others with our money, and they used it irresponsibly. We still seem not to care much though. Without turning this into a current events/economic response, it is not our place because we are afraid to reach out to one another. Racism is created out of this fear. We don't know each other, we draw negative conclusions, fear, anger and other negative feelings arise, and racism is created. It is hard to deal with one another after this. It 'may not be our place' because we're afraid to do what is right. I think that we are all inherently good people, I really do. Fear, anger, etc. all develop from ignorance. Once we know more, maybe by becoming friends with those who are a different skin color than us, or after taking a sociology class, we start to see though this ignorance. We are all 99.99% alike, right? We have to be experiencing, seeing, and feeling some sort of similarities. It is always our place, because we all know the truth. Racism, sexism, etc. are all wrong and if we see wrongdoings, we should intervene. I believe we are headed in the right direction though. We have a half black president, only 150 after slavery was outlawed. If we keep speaking up for what is right, we will all become closer to the truth. Thu, 4 Mar 2010 02:29:50 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/when-do-we-do-or-say-something__trashed/#IDComment59668868 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/native-americans-question-one__trashed/#IDComment58865212 Education is the key to knowledge. The more that we know about what actually happened, the more people will realize the seriousness of it. We all learn about 'Indians' in elementary school, in fact my mother teaches 4th grade and they are covering Native Americans in their history lessons right now. I think that I knew more then about tribes, lifestyles, territories, etc. then than I do now. Why do we not keep learning about our countries original people? We even say that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. The absurdity of that statement cannot be reiterated. Did 'America' not exist before European colonization? It is bullshit, and we continue to teach it. The only people to 'discover' America were the people who crossed the Bering Strait millions of years ago. I think we do not teach it for a number of reasons. We are embarrassed of our history. How could the 'great settlers' that came on the Mayflower and whatnot have been the instigators of the greatest genocide in human history? We also teach the greats of European conquest without mentioning anything of American Indians. Greece and Rome were great, but what was going on here, on 'our land' in the first year AD? I have always wanted to know questions to these answers but I have never gotten them. We need to acknowledge this genocide first and foremost. We do not exactly have a rich history (i.e. slavery), so why not admit that we made some huge mistakes and educate our youth on how they can make this a better world. It comes down to pride. Imagining teaching a room of 8 year old kids that their ancestors killed millions of people. I remember most of the kids being on the side of the Indian-they were resourceful, they had interesting spiritual beliefs, and they dressed so damn cool. Maybe we do not want to lose loyalty at such a young age. It is better to have a bunch of kids believe that this is the greatest country in the world, the country that Columbus discovered. Our education system needs a complete overhaul anyway if we wish to compete in the growing global market, so why not teach the facts at a young age? We screwed up, Americans are not perfect and we need to start teaching our flaws as well as our accomplishments. We should include the true history of America and Native Americans alongside any other history throughout elementary school and high school. It is the history of our country and our ancestors, so why deny it? This is a change that needs to be implemented as soon as possible to combat the ignorance surrounding this issue. It is our responsibility to acknowledge what we have done. Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:10:19 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/native-americans-question-one__trashed/#IDComment58865212 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/lgbt-class-question-six__trashed/#IDComment57705286 This is a question that I think you just need to look around to see evidence of. We live in an alpha-male dominated culture in the United States, so of course lesbians will be more accepted that gay men. Gay men are seen as the antithesis of this strictly American concept of "a strong work ethic, individuality, determination", etc. I am not advocating that it is right, but I think that it is a fair assessment of why things are this way. What is better to a straight man than a girl who digs another girl? Not much, except maybe if she likes guys too. Therefore, all the stigmas that homosexuality is wrong are largely directed towards men, because there is something that society says is alright about lesbianism but not homosexuality for males in this country. Another reason is that the American ideal of a man is so "masculine". In European countries like Italy, Spain, and France, it is alright for a man to let his guard down so to speak. He can pay attention to his looks, his diet, and his tastes in wine, whatever, without the fear of being called a "fag". I think this stigma has come about in this country because of the insecurity that most men have here. Gay are discriminated against because men are afraid that they will come after them or maybe that they will be attracted to them. We have these outlandish standards in this country of "what makes a man a man". He needs to drive a truck, eat a lot of meat, and watch football, whatever. It is ridiculous and it leads to such an impediment of individuality. My mother raised me, so I like to think that I have a more androgynous view on these sorts of things. I cook, read GQ, play soccer, eat organic, and I have a beautiful girlfriend on my arm, not another dude. Americans cannot see the in between on matters like this. I agree whole wholehearted with Sam that we are all in the middle. If someone is good looking, they are good looking, no matter what sex that they are. The man has throughout history been the provider, risk taker, etc. for his family. Times have changed though, and while I still love being a man, the need to grunt and beat my chest does not have to go along with it. I think what makes a man is an open mind, responsibility, and compassion among other things. All of this judgment needs to stop. We should let people be whoever the hell that they want to be, those that criticize this freedom are truly the insecure. Straight, gay, bi, whatever...we are all human beings above anything else, so we should really start to act like we are. Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:48:05 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/lgbt-class-question-six__trashed/#IDComment57705286 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/swinging-past-the-other-end-of-the-ideological-spectrum-on-the-way-to-the-intellectual-gray__trashed/#IDComment56522469 Freedom vs. determinism, this is about an interesting as an argument as there is in my opinion. I'm really interested in eastern philosophy/religion and I consider myself to be somewhat of Buddhist. Karma, suffering, etc., we're all subjected to because of choices that we make out of free will. I don't discount determinism though. My father died when I was four years old, and left my family in a pretty bad situation. Luckily my mother went back to get her Master's degree in teaching and saved us from plight in a way. I think about freedom and determinism every day. I could have been in an awful situation had my mother not been so responsible. I never take this for granted, and I like to think that because I have been lucky enough to have such a caring family, etc. that I make choices of my own free will that are skillful, as the Buddha would say. We are given this amazing opportunity as human beings, why would one ever make decisions that are not skillful? I am in no ways perfect, but I certainly bring this mindfulness into my daily life. That is why it's hard for me to ignore all the bullshit that is going on, especially in the United States. Sam gave his example about how those in power want to stay in power; they control the means of production, communication, the economic distribution, etc. Thinking about this from a Buddhist perspective is shocking and truly disgusting. It is an outrage that those in power (Senate members, AIG CEO's, the "Power Elite", etc.) by their own free will are choosing to continue to screw others over while they get richer. There are people dying in the streets in a country where we are all supposed to be given an equal opportunity to succeed. We're clearly not equal, and while anyone (as Sam said) can advance, it's not likely that you'll see too many children of Walmart employees at Princeton alongside kids born into this Power Elite. I don't often use this word, but we are truly blessed; blessed to be humans, blessed to be born in this country, blessed to be at an institute of higher learning, why squander these opportunities? Buddhism says that rebirth as a human is a unique perspective, because unlike the gods or the asuras, we are able to see suffering, so we are able to see what we can do to stop this suffering. We can only take credit (or blame) for decisions that we make out of our own free will. Mindfulness is truly the key, once we are aware of all that is around us, we can begin to make wiser decisions. Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:57:21 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/swinging-past-the-other-end-of-the-ideological-spectrum-on-the-way-to-the-intellectual-gray__trashed/#IDComment56522469 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/voters-and-their-senseless-stories__trashed/#IDComment55513596 This is a well-written article. Growing up in a working class, conservative suburb of Pittsburgh and being a fairly liberal person myself, I have always wondered why this phenomenon occurs. During the Bush era, there seemed to be some sort of attack on intellectuals, as if wanting to know what was going on made us bad Americans. I was one of the many people who was relieved when Obama rose through the ranks and eventually won the presidency, but in reality, nothing has changed. Obama has kept many of the same people around him that Bush did. Now there are just self-righteous Obama supporters to go with stubborn conservatives. Sam makes a good point when he refers to the protest rallies, similar to his slavery examples. Until we take responsibility for ourselves first, it is hard to place the blame on somebody else. Part of this responsibility assures that our government is watching over us, but also that we are not screwing over other countries in the process. We have been conditioned to believe that because I am a democrat that I am entirely different than you, a republican. In reality, the whole Power Elite (to steal a term from C. Wright Mills) is functioning as one unit, because we are too busy bickering with one another. This BBC article says that the Obama administration made a big mistake by not blaming the financial crisis on the Bush administration. Seriously? Is this what we have resorted to? Regardless of who caused the problem, we should be looking for actual solutions to it. I do not follow the news very closely, but the bailout and the AIG CEO bonuses do not seem like proper solutions. No one man or administration is responsible for the current dismal state of our country, it was and is a collective effort. So, while the title of this article may be "Why do people vote against their own interests?", it appears that there is not much of a distinction between these people and myself and others who voted for Obama. Obama, while only in office a little over a year, has not delivered much of anything besides a continuation of the Bush policies. I didn't expect Obama to bail out the banks who caused the crisis we're not in, or send more troops to fight a senseless war in Afghanistan. I voted against my own interest apparently, not on purpose, but because I was lied to. This topic comes down to nothing more than ignorance. Republicans tell people that democrats do all of these evil things, and these people listen and develop ideas about democrats. On the other side, democrats have developed negative depictions of republicans as insensitive and ignorant. Rallies occur saying that our side is right and yours is wrong, and so on. Until we realize that we all essentially want the same thing, these being the freedoms that are guaranteed to us as Americans, the fighting will continue. We're all humans, we should start to prove it. Fri, 5 Feb 2010 19:13:39 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/voters-and-their-senseless-stories__trashed/#IDComment55513596 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/racism-looks-pretty-good-on-this-side-of-the-atlantic__trashed/#IDComment54430072 I was unaware of the problems of discrimination until I studied abroad this past summer in Rome. Africans and Bangladeshi immigrants have been populating the country more and more as of recent times. These people were here illegally but most officials turned the other cheek towards them. It was hard to go anywhere in Rome without being bombarded by these immigrants selling something. Granted that it was annoying, these immigrants are still people. If they approached me trying to sell me something, I'd tell them that I was not interested and that was the end of it. Italians seemed to get more annoyed than the other students that I was with (which is understandable because they are used to it I'm sure), but I saw Italian storeowners treat these people worse than animals. I was in a bar and a Bangladeshi man came in trying to sell roses. The bar owner cursed angrily at the man and threw water on him. The man just sort of accepted it. I think that I felt more hurt than he did. It's unsettling to see racism so prevalent in a country that I hold in such high regards. I'm Italian by heritage and I've played soccer throughout my entire life. My favorite team is Juventus, a team based out of Turin with an abundance of fans from the south of Italy. Mohammad Sissoko, a Ghanaian player on their team is constantly discriminated against by not only other fans but those of his own team as well. The discrimination is not limited to Juventus though. Mario Balotelli, an Italian citizen of Ghanaian descent has experienced some of the worst discrimination in the history of Italian soccer, primarily from Juventus fans. It escalated this past spring when the two teams were forced to play in an empty stadium because of the degree of hatred expressed by these fans. It is really disheartening to see such a beautiful game destroyed by ignorance. It is so taboo here because of our history with slavery, but it is not uncommon in Europe. My grandmother was from Italy and she was always prejudice to an extent. Italy has always been a white (olive) skinned country primarily, but there has been African blood flowing through it for nearly all of history, especially in the south, where my grandmother was born. It is certainly prevalent in older generations, but this is not an excuse. I do not often think of Americans as more intelligent than Europeans (in general), but Italy, Spain, and the rest of Europe needs to recognize this problem if they wish to coexist in the future. I hope that this summer's World Cup being in Africa, albeit South Africa has an effect on the problems of racism in the game. Soccer is meant to be a universal sport, without the problem of racism, hopefully we can all enjoy it equally. Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:07:47 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/racism-looks-pretty-good-on-this-side-of-the-atlantic__trashed/#IDComment54430072 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/last-name-begins-with-r__trashed/#IDComment53880695 anything Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:02:19 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/last-name-begins-with-r__trashed/#IDComment53880695 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/haitis-calamity__trashed/#IDComment53280746 The tragedy in Haiti is one of immense proportions. It may be hard for us as Americans to grasp exactly what has happened because we are so removed from it. It is difficult for me to imagine conditions in Haiti before the earthquake, and even more so the dismay that has now struck the country. Haiti is one of the least developed countries not only in the western hemisphere but also in the entire world. We are so privileged as a nation, but very few of us ever acknowledge it. All of the sins that you speak of above have become the norm in our society. Whether our differences are fueled by the competition of our capitalist lifestyle or not is a question of debate. I am thinking of how often you hear of Americans who have travel to other counties (especially those less developed) and tell of how friendly the people are. The people that have so little are often the friendliest. I visited the Dominican Republic a few summers ago, and though it isn't Haiti, it is a fairly undeveloped country nonetheless. My family and I stayed at a resort for a week (which I am not particularly proud of) and we were treated like royalty. It is an understatement to say that I felt guilty. I did my best to talk to the workers at the resort and I made sure to thank and tip them well, but it still did not feel right. It was worse when we went into town on a tour of some sort. Here we were, the American tourists trying to catch a glimpse at "real" Dominican life. I did not want another person treating me as if I was above them in some sort of way. Without going further on that tangent, what I am getting at here is that there is life outside of our own, and we need to realize it. If Christ died for our sins 2,000 years ago, we'd need 10x as many martyrs to die for all of the sinning of today. Something is not right about watching a news channel cover the devastation in Haiti only to break for a commercial that pushes consumerism. Instead of buying a new truck or a new cell phone (that will be obsolete in a few months), why not give your attention to something worthwhile? I am not purposely attacking our lifestyle, but tragedies like this should be a wake up call. These health/wealth disparities around the world must be reversed if we are to continue living as a civilization of some sort rather than just as individuals or individual nations. Realizing and giving up our excesses for another's development is a great starting point. This tragedy is real. People are dying because they lack the things that we take for granted. This is an awful tragedy, but for it to happen to such an underdeveloped country makes it that much more hard to take. There is somebody somewhere suffering, lacking the necessities of life, and realizing the severity of this is an essential part of life. If we can come to some sort of consensus, I think that true human progress can be made. Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:15:31 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/haitis-calamity__trashed/#IDComment53280746