Okay, I was kind of avoiding the whole Haitian earthquake news story. Everyone knows that a devastating 7.0 earthquake hit near the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince on January 12th. The local, national, and international news is full of the devastation, death, and horror stories. Fortunately, there are a few stories that are really heartwarming, including CNN helping people locate missing family through their website and a Haitian family in Boise helping raise money and teaching their kids to help by running a lemonade stand.
The reason I haven't mentioned much is because, honestly, when something bad happens lately I have tended to take an ostrich approach. I have not been able to watch television news or really read the papers because it makes me so incredibly sad. However, I am feeling much better about humanity and have a little bit more hope for those in need. The main reason is because of what's been circulating the past couple of days regarding CNN host Anderson Cooper.
Anderson's blog on CNN shows many stills and even a video of Anderson putting down his camera and helping a young boy who had just been hit in the head with a piece of concrete brick. Anderson pulled the boy out of the way and helped get him to a group of people who could help.
A lot of people might say, oh, it's a publicity thing, but it isn't. The world witnessed the same behavior during Hurricane Katrina when Anderson lashed out at Senator Mary Landrieu for patting congress on the back and not showing concern at all for the victims by saying, "No, Senator I haven't heard that, for the last four days I've been seeing dead bodies."
A lot of news reporters are in it for the stories, the ratings, and the notoriety and will stand back to "let news happen."However, this is something that Anderson just doesn't do. He is a wonderful example of bringing important information for those who can't associate and he says what some of us are thinking and doing what some of us wish we could do. For that, I thank Anderson for being such an example.
Of course, I don't want to distract from the devastation and turmoil that's happening now. It's a horrible tragedy and I wish that I could do more, or anything. However, the only thing I can do is to tell everyone to donate what you can and to never forget, because once the news crews leave for the next big story, these people in Haiti will still be rebuilding and reeling from tragedy.
To donate to the Red Cross visit: RedCross.org or text 'HAITI' to 90999 to donate $10
To donate to Doctors without Borders visit: DoctorsWithoutBorders.org
To donate to UNICEF to help the children affected visit: UNICEFUSA.org
To donate to the Salvation Army to provide food visit: SalvationArmy.org
To donate to AmeriCares visit: AmeriCares.org or text 'LIVE' to 25383
To donate to AmericanHumane to help the animals affected visit: AmericanHumane.org
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