Squandered decades of help
I have minimal sympathy for Haiti [“Hope by the ton for a land in chaos,” page one, Jan. 19]. They squandered decades of help when they should have been improving their country through education, population control, reforming their government, restoring their environment and developing industries and tourism to finance a better infrastructure and stronger, safer buildings.
The good Samaritan helped the injured person he found along the road, but the good Samaritan did not support the man for the rest of his life. When this crisis is over the Haitians will go back to being a perpetual welfare state and governments and charities will continue to be enablers.
I think Pat Robertson is wrong about Haiti being cursed, but I tend to agree with Rush Limbaugh’s “don’t donate” comment.
— Byron Gilbert, Seattle
Evidence of pact with the devil: The Dominican Republic
Pat Robertson can speak of spiritual probabilities, but not spiritual certainties for bad events [“Religious Haitians see hand of God in earthquake,” News, Jan. 18]. The Christian creation story describes a good but — because of human sin — an ever-decaying, broken world. Therefore, God or Satan no longer has to intervene for any particular hardship to occur.
However, Haiti and the Dominican Republic do share the island of Hispaniola. Haiti obtained its independence from France and the Dominican Republic obtained its from Haiti in 1844. Haiti’s religion is voodoo and the Dominican Republic is Catholic. Haiti has suffered traditionally abusive and despotic governments and the Dominican Republic is a democratic republic. The Dominican Republic has enjoyed strong GDP growth to $78.19 billion and per-capita income of $8,200. Haiti has a GDP of $6.95 billion and per-capita income of $1,300.
Classical Christian thought says humans live with the consequences of their decisions and God does not override those human choices. By making a pact with the devil for their independence, Haitians would empower the devil to extract a pound of flesh in myriad ways as long as they remained unrepentant. From a Christian perspective, the residents of the Dominican Republic repented of this sin and prospered.
— Nolan Nelson, Eugene Ore.
Danny Glover’s comments more outrageous
Your newspaper devoted many lines to recurrent themes about Pat Robertson — i.e. putting his foot in his mouth regarding “divine punishment of Haitians for their religious aberrations.”
Meanwhile another “wise” man — this time a liberal — Danny Glover, said, in my opinion, an even more outrageous and idiotic thing on the same subject. He blamed the failure of the conference on global climate in Copenhagen for the earthquake in Haiti. He also blamed the U.S.A. for everything bad that has happened during this century — but only a very lazy liberal doesn’t blame America for that.
— Michael Velikin, Kenmore
Bodies imply racism
The hundreds of bodies strewed across the cover of Jan. 15’s edition was extremely humbling [“Desperation grips Haiti as aid struggles to get in,” page one]. Thank you for your reports on the devastation and allowing us at home to be more involved in the tragedy.
However, I have always been disturbed at the implied racism that comes with only displaying mutilated bodies of non-Americans — and never of Americans. Given the United States’ dark history of using the bodies of prisoners, minorities and the poor as cadavers for medical practice, and using “unclaimed Chinese bodies” in the Bodies Exhibit — a for-profit exhibition — it is clear that racism and elitism still exist in our progressive state.
Of course, I don’t yearn to see the misfortune of others, but if The Times chooses to display bodies of people not of our citizenship, The Times should also display bodies of our fallen troops and victims of our disasters and misfortune. Or no photographs of explicit dead bodies should be shown at all. There is a double standard regarding whose death gets to be depicted as dignified and whose is just entertainment.
— Yingxuan Law, Seattle