Maggie's Farm

ahem ... The U.S. has a long record of "helping these poor people out" over the years. As always, we and the Canadians and several other nations in the Western world are rushing in to help once again.

How much do you know about the history of Haiti? It's the poorest country in this hemisphere, and has a long, ugly record of corruption, exploitation and mismanagement within the island, beginning with Henri Christophe, "the slave king," in the 1800s and proceeding through Papa Doc Duvalier, Baby Doc Duvalier and Aristide, among others. To the casual observer, it may seem that the populace is brutally treated and exploited, but other Caribbean islands have begun as captive states and have emerged to be profitable and peaceful in the modern world.

The United States has been a helpful neighbor to Haiti many times, through hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. We began to mobilize aid as soon as the earthquake happened Tuesday night. But it takes time to get nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, hospital ships and other heavy-duty equipment to Haiti. The airport is almost unusable after dark. There are no Haitian public organizations, like fire and police, which are functional right now. The Carl Vinson aircraft carrier is supposed to arrive at Haiti sometime today, as is the hospital ship and other American aid vessels. Countries as far away as Norway and Israel are sending search and rescue teams to help search for people trapped under collapsed buildings. And, in case you wonder why we are sending an aircraft carrier, the Vinson is nuclear powered, has a well-trained crew of around 5000 able bodied military, a completely equipped field hospital, skilled food service and supplies, desalinization facilities, and best of all, a huge carrier deck offering landing/take-off facilities for aid planes and rescue planes. The U.S. has about 40,000 of its citizens living in Haiti, as I understand it. Of course we are going to do everything we can to rescue them as well as the rest of the populace.

All of this information is available on the Internet, if you will search it out. Why haven't you done so, before you criticize us?

Marianne