to all you "Haiters...."

so the NP (nurse practitioner) who saw me on Tuesday night was off to Haiti in just an HOUR after she finished taking care of me. she was leaving in just ONE hour!!!! she was off to Haiti to help in the aid of those poor, poor people who have nothing after that horrible tragedy.

this is one of those topics that people will and DO disagree with and fight about and argue about and have very mixed feelings about.... oh well. here i go anyway....

so, i am a strong believer, that when you CAN help, you should. as long as you are not overgiving and not taking care of yourself in the meantime.... do not let someone take advantage of you, but give when you can.

many people feel that "we have people here who need help, and yet others are still flying to haiti to help other countries.... why not help our people first?"

that sounds reasonable enough.... but do you look or think or feel any further than that "surfaced," or "generalized," statement? i mean come on!!!! Yes, there are many people here who could probably benefit very much from some assistance, but there are also very many of them who have the aid possible.... any person can walk into a hospital and cannot be denied treatment... we HAVE the treatment here and it's readily available!!!

a lot of our homeless society is due to a lot of terrible personal choices and decisions.... drug addictions mainly, but there are very many others, and a lot of people truly cannot help their status. the mental capacity and ability to further themselves just isn't where it needs to be. maybe they were born that way.... and although i am a terribly compassionate person, i find it extremely difficult to feel sorry for the people who have HAD the opportunity to do something with themselves, go through rehab, quit drugs, attend free therapy sessions, things like that, and they STILL choose the drugs.... they have no money for clothes, or food, but boy do they find a way to find money for drugs or booze.... it's a matter of what is important in your life.... life is all about the decisions you make and many are so far gone, they only do what they know....

what an ACCOUNTABILITY issue!!! everyone wants to point the blame elsewhere for the poor decisions they have made.

"oh it's because my mother did this."

"it's because my father abandoned me."

"it's because my parents did drugs."

"i was molested."

"so and so did this" and

"so and so did that."

"i have a disorder that causes me to need drugs,"

"or sex,"

"or love,"

or whatever the heck it is.... THOSE THINGS MAY BE TRUE.... THOSE UNFORTUNATE, EXTREMELY UNFORTUNATE mishappenings may have reallllly happened to you, and for that i am EXTREMELY sorry for that!!!! i am!!!! but when do people hold themselves accountable for the wrong decisions they have made? huh? when do people stop and say, "yes, those horrible horrible things have happened to me, but i don't want them to consume me and i don't want my life to continue in that direction. I AM RESPONSIBLE for the decisions i make?" does anyone say that?? i don't know! Here in America, we have the hospitals nearly everywhere!!! we have doctors. we have bloodbanks. we have surgical rooms, instruments and supplies. does Haiti? do other 3rd world countries have those? no... NO they don't!!!!

a drug seeking bum can walk into a hospital with NO insurance and complain of horrible pain, sign a paper saying he will pay for his care, and be given all the "drugs" needed to get him through a withdrawal, or give him a warm bed to sleep in for the night. or a place to shower.... you see, we, in America have that chance.... we are THAT fortunate.... so when these doctors and nurses pay for the instruments and things to be shipped (including themselves), over to Haiti to help those poor helpless Haitians, we need to re-think a lot of things....

YES, (agreed) our society is in a horrible recession/position right now. MANY people have lost their homes, and it's a very unfortunate thing. could any of this have been prevented? people, we must look at living within our means.... instead of always going above and beyond.... so many people thought that because they could be approved for such a high loan amount that they could "afford" it rather than thinking about "what might happen if i lost their job? do i have any savings as a back up? what happens if this 'variable' loan interest rate goes up? what happens then?" i'm not entirely up to date and caught up with all the terms and topics and i surely don't know a whole lot about politics and all that (no matter how hard i try to follow, i still come up short) but i do know one thing.... it saddens me that some people can be SO selfish in saying that we have people here who need help. it's true. we do have people here who may very well need help. but there is so much more help available to people who are in the US than anywhere else....

when i worked in the hospital, do you know how many women/children would come over from mexico JUST before giving birth, because they KNEW they could deliver here? they wanted their child to have a much better chance than they would anywhere else.... people know that.... and that is why they come here.... i'm not being a racist or prejudice. i am sharing the information i, myself, was told by many of women who came through the hospital....

so to my nurse practitioner, who finished slicing and dicing under my arm, i commend you, and everyone you recruited to go with you to help something WAY bigger than yourself.... for facing something you had no idea what you were going to be facing, but using your money and your talent and putting it towards a wonderful cause.... just because they don't have it, doesn't mean they should go without it.... No one, NO ONE, deserves to suffer.... not a homeless person, not a Haitian.... especially not when someone, (maybe even YOU) could do something to help....

.... that's all i have to say about that....