For Wilshire Baptist Church
While the president’s coarse words last week about Haiti and other impoverished countries were truly troubling, what’s more troubling is that he may be echoing opinions held by more people than we wish to believe. Because while we are quick to judge what some people say, it might be good to look at what is not said as well.
Late Tuesday night before the president’s statements on Thursday, I read news of a magnitude-7.6 earthquake off the coast of Honduras. The reports said that tsunami warnings had been issued throughout the Caribbean, and that got my attention because my brother and his wife were vacationing in the Dominican Republic. I texted them before I went to bed and they not did reply until the next morning. They were not aware of the danger, and as it turned out the warnings had been cancelled quickly and all was well.
But interestingly, none of the dozen news reports that I read about potential danger both that night and since then mentioned the Dominican Republic or Haiti, its connected island neighbor. Almost every report mentioned Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, Belize, Cuba, and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. But Haiti? The only attention it got in a couple of reports was a footnote-type reminder of the devastating earthquake that struck there in 2010.
So why did Haiti miss the cut for countries to worry about – especially since it was closer to the earthquake epicenter than Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands? I can’t judge the intent of news editors, but I can make some guesses about priorities. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and we treat them like a state when it makes us feel good. Cuba is a political and economic puzzle that we’re still eager to figure out. The Caymans and Virgins are popular destinations for honeymoons and game show prizes. We like to go to those islands to get away from – well – us. That might be part of it. I can’t say for sure.
Admittedly, this is a superficial take on a serious issue. But sometimes these little snubs of attention are pretty good indicators of who we are and what we think. And quite often our silence about an issue or a place – in this case a country and its people – speaks much louder than our most ugly, ignorant, bombastic words.