This will probably ruffle some feathers

Disclaimer: This entry is perhaps more... inflammatory than strictly necessary, or indeed than I necessarily feel (if you know me, you know I tend to take things to extremes to provoke honest thought), but I hope it gives the reader pause to think.


Let me start by saying that I feel very deeply for the people of Haiti in the wake of this most recent disaster. I am heartbroken to think of the lives altered utterly and irrevocably by the loss of parents, children, siblings, spouses, homes, limbs and livelihoods.

I think it's wonderful that the world in general, and Canadians in particular have responded so generously.

But I can't help but wonder... what about the needy in our own back yards? What about the people who have found themselves homeless and hungry in the past year? What about the people who were homeless and hungry even before the recent economic downturn? What about the people here who can't afford medications? Who can't afford the associated costs of significant medical treatments (after-care, for example... or physio... or crutches or prosthetics or... the list is not insignificant).

Charitable donations are down. Have been down for 2 years running, now. Demand on Food Banks is up and climbing at a startling rate.

I don't begrudge the Haitians the donations pouring in for them... they so obviously need any help they can get. I honestly wish there was more I could do (but, with me being unemployed for the past 20+ months, we're not in great shape here, either). Maybe it's our own precarious position that makes me a little irked at the outpouring of funds and star-studded appeals for the latest 'fashionable' cause... but I doubt it. I wondered the same thing after the Tsunami of 2004.

The government of Canada is generously matching civilian donations to Haiti. Let's not forget about the needy at home in our race to be charitable... donations at home aren't being matched. A dollar here is a dollar. A dollar for the latest cause would go further on it's own already, and the government are doubling it.

While Mohammed Ali appealed last night on George Clooney's telethon saying that "Charity begins at home... but it shouldn't end there", let's also not forget that it SHOULD begin at home. We have poor, disadvantaged, and starving people here, too... we have a climate with its own harsh realities of temperature and people living without shelter... we have children who have been bereft of family support here, too. Let's not forget them. The increase in need here isn't quite as sudden and dramatic... but the increase is possibly all the more devastating in it's creeping advance because nobody seems to notice it. Like a band of guerrillas creeping up on a village so quietly that they do not notice until they are surrounded and in mortal danger with no hope of escape.

So give... give generously... give as much as you can... but don't take from another worthy cause to which you usually contribute (but were thinking you might not get around to this year) to do so. There will be people in the world who will need the support of 'stronger' communities in the years to come (Haiti will be in recovery for a long time, just as there are still places in South Asia striving to recover from the Tsunami... just as the deep south is still recovering from Katrina)... don't ignore the need at home in the rush to help them now... or we might not be in a position to still help them later.