 Now in tragedy, we can finally see our neighbor and benefactor HAITI. Any History buff can tell you that this most unfortunate, poverty stricken country, we now join an international effort not only to help, but to save, is in large part a recurring chapter in our Nation’s story. As an all but forgotten footnote, Haiti is the missing link which reveals the best and worst of America’s past, present and future: We Are A Connected People! In many ways the slave rebellion of Haiti, coming so soon after our own successful Revolution, is as vital to America being a country with a national reach “from sea to shining sea,” as our National generosity is now necessary to their survival. True it was the Europeans who began our march to the Second Continental Congress, our Declaration of Independence, the great experiment in our International “Exceptionalism” as “The First Modern Democracy,” albeit compromised at present, by the unpatriotic hypocrisy of “The Patriot Act,” and in the past, by the slaughtering of Native Americans. However, without “the War of Knives,” followed by Napoleon’s 1802 invasion, Crete-a-Pierrot, the arrest & death of Haitian freedom leader Toussaint, and, in less than 30 years after our own, the Declaration, in January 1804, of the Second Republic in the Western Hemisphere, we wouldn’t be the sum total of who & what we are. We’re connected.
If the ancestors of the very poor black Haitians who bravely hang on after the recent devastating earthquake, hadn’t made it “the better part of valor” for Napoleon to give Haiti back to the Haitians, in all likely-hood, our President Jefferson would not have had the opportunity to ignore Congress and the Constitution, and enlarge our not always united United States, by doubling the size of America with his 1803 Louisiana Purchase. See the connection?
As a Progressive Independent, I make every effort to listen to all points of view and choose the “Candidate” over the “Party.” I continue to appreciate and respect Republicans like Everett Dirksen and Governor Nelson Rockefeller, yes Goldwater too, and even those “tea baggers” who long for the rebirth of what the 50’s are supposed to have been, under the Golfer-in-Chief. However, living through the slow undoing of our National human decency and International respectability, resulting from the activities of people like, Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Rove, it became increasingly difficult to understand how “We the People” could settle for such a poor reflection of ourselves, in our government. I know we have never been the perfect people our movies and even history books portray, but surely we know the Bush League redefined each of us to the world, in a most disappointing and embarrassing way. I'm not an Obama worshiper, and I have little faith in either National Political Party. However, there is no comparison between the lack of leadership of the self-serving Bush League and the mature, calm and deliberate leadership of a President with an International vision, who seems to reach out at every opportunity to embrace and include all points of view. It’s more than Bipartisanship. It’s International accountability. It’s connecting, responsibly.
Our new young President knows, while we must not try to rule the world, we must be good citizens of and in it. Observing the Haiti comments of our recent trio of Presidents, is a most vivid reminder of the contrast between the limited view, reminiscent of those administrations who turned a blind eye to Papa & Baby Doc, in a self-deluding mind-set of protecting us from Communism. “Just send your cash,” is precisely what you’d expect from a moral & mental midget who at best, is so incredibly insensitive & Internationally unaware, and at worst, just too uninterested in anything beyond his personal turf of Texas dirt. Thankfully, the people of the world, could at least see that two to one, our most recent Presidents are examples of America’s best sincere Humanitarian International Citizenship. The Haitians will see it too, just as soon as they have sufficient medical help, clean running water, enough food for their children, homes, clothes and yes, electricity once again. I have faith, that with God’s help and our own, these descendants of fighters for Freedom & Independence for the Second Republic in our neighborhood, will survive and win the day. In recovering from our own near destruction from the Bush/Cheney years, let us resurrect our Humanity and re-connect to our shared history with our Haitian neighbors, in a Renaissance of our Human Decency.
Giving HOPE a helping hand,
Marcello Rollando
A Reasonable Voice for a Rebirth of Our Humanity,
Freedoms, Honesty and the Rule of Law
www.TheReasonableVoice.com
http://www.democratunity.com
http://my.nolimits.org/?xgsi=1
http://www.andreamiller.us/info
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