Why I Cry For America

[justbroke]

My stepson asked me, yesterday, why are we in Haiti when we have our own problems? I had to explain to him, if not America, who?

[Flamingo]

[QUOTE=JRScott;369799]Just so you know Haiti is at the edge of the Caribbean plate and the North
American plate, not the Atlantic plate .

Sorry, meant the Mid-Atlantic Ridge not plate which is the eastern edge of the North American Plate. It pushes westward to the east of Haiti with Haiti and the surrounding area right smack in a squeeze zone. Hence an area for huge earthquake activity. Everyone knows how this Island sits in precarious earthquake zone and is in one of the worst areas to be hit by hurricanes after they form off the African Coast. Yet each year we all read how that area gets hit head on by big category hurricanes and periodically big earthquakes. And more are yet to come...what are the answers? I don't think anyone knows or can monetarily figure it out. You can't relocate an entire country.

[DeadManCrawling]

The America people will solve what ails this country. The beginning of the correction is November 2010 though it may start as early as January 19, 2010.

This country has survived much worse than the economic troubles we face now and political destruction of our way of life currently going on. We'll be fine, it will just take some time.

Ohio,

I admire your faith, truly.

I have none.

The concept that we will survive disasters of our own making, because, "We are America" by Gawd, I gave up a few years ago. There is no real evidence that we, great as this nation is, have the power to stop or even delay the explosives we have thrown on the path in front of us. I hear a LOT of people say this: We have always overcome before, we will again. But no one, so far, has been able to provide anything to back up the statement. Blind faith, I guess, has borne us through before, maybe it will again.

I hope you are right and I am wrong. In my mind, we are building a disastrous road to hell and walking that direction ignorantly, if not gleefully.

All I can say is what i already did--I hope you are right.

Best,

-dmc

[JRScott]

The Atlantic plate, just as the Pacific Plate (Ring of Fire) are constantly in motion. The Island Nations are prone to these earthquakes inasmuch as they usually sit near or on a major fault. To give you an idea, the area where New York City is now will someday be a huge mountain range again as it once was as the plates are all moving and shifting for that to eventually take place. Unfortunately, island nations are usually poor and overpopulated with structures that cannot withstand an earthquake even though they will occur and are known to occur. There are huge earthquakes all the time in Jakarta and Indonesia and the same occurs there. We hear of great loss of life and massive home and business destruction. Rebuilding is done but another quake just brings it down again because the rebuilding that is done is not the kind that can withstand another earthquake in impoverished nations and many of the people in the island nations live in the mountainous regions in cheaply made homes or shelters. This is a continuing saga over the decades/centuries and even with help from outside nations, it will continue as most of these countries just do not have the money, are overpopulated and maybe lack the education/resources to build properly to withstand future earthquakes or other natural disasters (hurricanes, tsunamis, etc.).

Just so you know Haiti is at the edge of the Caribbean plate and the North
American plate, not the Atlantic plate .

At one time Haiti was a very wealthy nation, however corruption and deceit from their government is what has led them to their current predicament. It is a lesson for ourselves as it becomes more and more obvious of the corruption in our own government with the various aspects of the Health Care Bill like the Cornhusker Kickback, Lousiana Purchase, Florida Compact etc that are clearly bribes at the expense of the rest of the nation (just like excempting Unions from the tax on cadillac plans.......). If we are not careful we may be the Haiti of the future within a century.

Haiti though is overpopulated and that is a great problem. But its just like New Orleans, it is hard to get folks to give up their 'land' or 'home' even if it is in their best interest.

[LimpDisc]

The America people will solve what ails this country. The beginning of the correction is November 2010 though it may start as early as January 19, 2010.

This country has survived much worse than the economic troubles we face now and political destruction of our way of life currently going on. We'll be fine, it will just take some time.

The American people don't have a good track record for elections. What makes you think November 2010 will be any different?

[OhioFiler]

The America people will solve what ails this country. The beginning of the correction is November 2010 though it may start as early as January 19, 2010.

This country has survived much worse than the economic troubles we face now and political destruction of our way of life currently going on. We'll be fine, it will just take some time.

[Flamingo]

The Atlantic plate, just as the Pacific Plate (Ring of Fire) are constantly in motion. The Island Nations are prone to these earthquakes inasmuch as they usually sit near or on a major fault. To give you an idea, the area where New York City is now will someday be a huge mountain range again as it once was as the plates are all moving and shifting for that to eventually take place. Unfortunately, island nations are usually poor and overpopulated with structures that cannot withstand an earthquake even though they will occur and are known to occur. There are huge earthquakes all the time in Jakarta and Indonesia and the same occurs there. We hear of great loss of life and massive home and business destruction. Rebuilding is done but another quake just brings it down again because the rebuilding that is done is not the kind that can withstand another earthquake in impoverished nations and many of the people in the island nations live in the mountainous regions in cheaply made homes or shelters. This is a continuing saga over the decades/centuries and even with help from outside nations, it will continue as most of these countries just do not have the money, are overpopulated and maybe lack the education/resources to build properly to withstand future earthquakes or other natural disasters (hurricanes, tsunamis, etc.).

[JRScott]

Some profound thoughts.

When you wash dishes you cleanse the inner vessel before the outer vessel. Sometimes a nation must do that as well, if we are to continue to be the great humanitarian nation we have been in the past we must fix our mess at home.

The world has to long depended on us for many things, and we have given fish when it was needed, but oftentimes we have failed to teach how to get fish for themselves. It is why when our economy fails and our nation goes bankrupt we'll take half the world with us. It is the failure to learn the important lessons of the past.

I was looking at the past history of earthquakes in and around Haiti and I have to say it doesn't bode well. In centuries when they had a major earthquake, they have generally come in threes spread over decades. It is unlikely they would recover before the next quake hits if that historical trend continues this time.

I used to attend church with a Haitian couple. They were quiet and humble people. They were an older couple and this was when I lived out west. They spoke no English yet they came almost every Sunday to a meeting they obviously did not understand. That humility is what is lacking much in the United States, and we may soon be compelled to humility as our own economy fails. I've thought of them since the earthquake a lot. I hope they and their children are well.

[DeadManCrawling]

I realized tonight why I shed tears as I think about the loss of our dignity, the fall of our economy, the lapse in status we are experiencing on the world stage. It, for me anyway, has nothing to do with money, nothing to do with my own personal finances, and nothing to do with loss of homes, mine included.

There is a true catastrophe unfolding in Haiti, following the massive earthquake. Thousands, maybe tens or even hundreds of thousands, are dead or dying. This horrible disaster will leave that country crippled in more ways than we can imagine. But, it would serve us well to imagine it, anyway. What Mother Nature has wrought in Haiti is likely to befall America at some point, but ours is entirely man-made and economic, in nature.

What caught my attention, and imagination, is this:

First on the scene in Haiti are the US Special Command from the Air Force, right after a few contingents who were already based there, before the disaster.

Next up-a group of specialists in disaster organization and engineering, sent by charities and universities in the US.

US Marines are on the way, if not already there, not to wage war, but to make sure the peace is maintained, as much as they can. That will be a tall order.

Tomorrow, if not already, a group of US experts on air traffic control will arrive. They will help coordinate the efforts and arrange landing schedules for the massive aid efforts that are expected in the coming weeks.

They were preceded by flights over the country by the USAF, to ascertain, as best they could, where it would be possible to land supplies by air or sea.

See a pattern here?

The US has been at the forefront of aid efforts like this countless times, usually unheralded, often unrecognized after the fact. Though we were slow in our own disaster, Katrina, we have always stood out to the rest of the world as the "shining beacon of hope". We ARE, or WERE, that light in the shadow, the dream that ANY nation could aspire to, and, possibly, hope to attain. Around the world, I believe millions, or billions, looked at us and said, "Why not here? Why not me? Why not NOW?"

Our economic troubles of the last two years weigh heavily on my mind. If we fall, what of the rest of the world?

And we are perilously close to falling. So close that I am preparing my family for that possibility. That is something I considered lunacy a short time ago. Now I view it as necessity. Frightening times surround us.

But my greater fear is this:

What if our Haiti mission is the last?

Who, then, will the world look to?

Will the world even BE there to look?

Will it matter?

Those are the thoughts that occurred to me, as our bankrupt nation did what we have always done-lend a hand to friends and neighbors in their darkest hour.

Yet, it seems OUR darkest hour is forthcoming.

Who, then, will airlift aid to us, and coordinate relief efforts? Who will stand with us, at OUR moment of need?

I fear it will be no one. Yet, I can hardly cast blame, since much of the world already views the economic collapse as being an American creation.

And they may be right.

God help us.

Best,

-dmc