UNBELIEVABLE COMPASSION

In the face of the catastrophic natural disaster in Haiti, it’s hard to get one’s head around the enormous depth of suffering that’s occurring every second of every day. I thought Meryl Streep expressed so beautifully, how many of us feel in her Golden Globe acceptance speech. How can we go about our normal lives, worrying about the things that we worry about, when fellow humans are subject to such atrocious conditions right now? We feel powerless – we want to help and as Meryl said last night, some of us can. Five bucks or five hundred all goes into the massive pot which will help the most impoverished community in the world.  Only  last week I was explaining to the 6th Graders I teach, how millions of people over the globe (as we speak), live in little more than a tin shack without running water and electricity. As we discussed it further, they were astounded that in this day and age, fellow human beings are subject to extreme hunger and complete lack of just about every basic need that we take for granted. We were relating it to how global warming will likely affect these communities most harshly. Haiti has been a prime example of relentless poverty for decades and now this! I am so heartened by the incredible compassion and love in the form of action that began minutes after the quake across the globe. Everyone I know, and don’t know is giving literally everything they possibly can: Kids are emptying out piggy banks and mega celebrities like Oprah are imploring everyone to give what they can financially. Oprah’s call to Action is to go to Red Cross and donate now. It’s so easy to call their 1800 # and have $10.00 added to your phone bill.  As a global community we are so powerful when we have a common purpose, which is spurred by a sense of deep compassion. How beautiful to see all the media bickering subside in the face of what really matters. It’s a shame that it takes a disaster of this magnitude to galvanize us all into the kind of action that makes a difference.

I have donated to Partners In Health because one of my closet friends from high school in England, Opehlia Dahl, is the executive director and as a result,  I have seen the incredible work that this organization has been doing in Haiti for well over 20 years. See her interview here with Katie Couric. Since the urgent need right now is emergency medical care, this is an organization that was able to provide first response medical care and needs our help to continue. I was thrilled to see that my heroine Meryl, is also donating (quite a bit!) to PIH too.