Helping Haiti, Helping Ourselves

Thank God that the USA can assemble resources to help earthquake-devastated Haiti, and even lead the world in providing relief.

Streaming toward Haiti are the fruits of the innovations of a free people operating within capitalism. America still can send food, water, and medicine to Haiti; rush these necessities to their destination on air transport as soon as landing fields are reclaimed from the rubble; and deliver these life-saving supplies to the Haitian people via the U.S. military and trained disaster relief teams, in possession of, I will add, hearts of gold.

Yesterday, as I listened to Obama promise America's help to Haiti, I could not help wonder how much longer America will be able to do such a thing, to deliver enormous help to people who just got dealt a massive blow somewhere in the world.

After all, whatever America sends to Haiti will be paid for on our national credit card. We have long since spent our own money on fake economic stimulus, buy-outs of the financial and auto industries, unemployment benefits (paychecks and education stipends) for millions of unemployed Americans, and plenty more. In fact, if Obama has it his way, paying for aid to Haiti will be far down on a long list, after paying for "reforms" that reduce health care and raise medical costs and after paying for carbon "credits" that make our cold winters colder and our heating bills higher.

We already are in debt to at least the third generation.

And then, of course, many people who in the pre-stimulus, pre-reform days would have been writing largish checks to Haitian relief charities now will be writing smaller checks. People who normally would have written smallish checks may be able to write none at at all.

It is darn near impossible to dampen America's generosity of spirit, so there will be help for Haiti, but as our debt load grows, our ability to act on that generous spirit will diminish.

This is the work of Obama and his Obamatons. America's great debate is not whether Obama's administration is wreaking havoc with our economy, but instead is focused on whether America's political and economic devolution is the result of stupid mismanagement or of artful ideology.

The Obama administration's headstrong efforts to destroy the wealth from which America's good works flow cause his admonition to the American people to rankle:

Despite the fact that we are experiencing tough times here at home, I would encourage those Americans who want to support the urgent humanitarian efforts to go to whitehouse.gov, where you can learn how to contribute.

We are not passively "experiencing tough times," as though Nature sent an ill wind that snuffed out 14% of America's jobs. We are experiencing tough times as the result of specific policies being forced on us by a president and Congress unresponsive to--in fact acting in defiance of--the American people. How more desirable would it be if we could we entrust the chore of governance to those who we have elected to govern while we focus our thoughts and energies on helping the people of Haiti in this time of crisis? Very desirable, but that is not the situation that we face.

If we wish to remain strong and able to help others, we'd best make sure that we are in a position to help ourselves.

Help Haiti through reputable charities: Eric Ericson at RedState suggests The Salvation Army; Jeff at RedState recommends the Haiti Foundation Against Poverty; Founding Bloggers recommends the Jewish Federation Relief Fund (100% of donation goes to Haiti). [Added: Fox News has published a list of reputable charities working to send relief to Haiti.]

Added: Similar sentiments elsewhere on the Web:

 Dr. Zero at Hot Air:

Thank God we still have the wealth and will to help the people of Haiti today. If we let the architects of the socialist state build a hospice where we can die quietly, we won’t be able to help the people of tomorrow, either domestically or abroad. It’s about time we remembered our duty to mankind, and accept the truth that only the industry of free men can defeat hunger, poverty, and disease.

There's My Two Cents:

It's not just about our own personal wealth, comfort, or well-being. America truly is the last best hope for freedom in the world, and that freedom is what allows us to achieve such immense wealth...and thus, the generosity that the world sees every time such a catastrophe occurs. Without freedom, there is no capitalism. Without capitalism, there is no increasing wealth. Without increasing wealth, there is no assistance to those who need it.

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