Power Misused

Today I am in Omaha, Nebraska, preaching at Countryside UCC, and then giving a lecture in the evening on the subject, “The Myth of the Post-Racial Society.”
I ask your prayers.
But I ask bigger prayers for the people of Haiti who have been so poorly treated in the aftermath of the earthquake. I finally broke down in tears early in the week as I watched news reports keep talking about the importance of security instead of how the people of Haiti could best be helped.
I wept when I saw the report of how the Belgian doctors left critically ill, post-surgical patients, ordered to do so by their superior, who was worried about security.
Report after report lifted up the word “looting,” as if that was THE thing everyone had to be cautious of. Meanwhile, days were passing by with dead bodies piling up, the injured left stranded with no medical care, and out-and-out survivors with nothing to eat or drink.
Perhaps we would all “loot” were we in that situation.
The scene made me think about how far the world is from being “post racial.” Race matters, no matter what people say. The good people who have traveled to Haiti have good intentions, and will do good things, but their efforts are seriously hampered by their fear of people of color. The lessons of these United States have penetrated foreign borders, and augmented preconceived notions even foreigners have and had of black people.
You have heard me say that perhaps the good that comes out of this is that Haiti stops being the invisible country, that the world has been forced to look at this tiny nation of resilient yet suffering people and be moved to act. Perhaps now there will be help for Haiti to get an infrastructure, and all the things a 21st century so close to the United States must have in order to thrive.
The wrestling for power and control will erupt soon, if it has not already. The great powers will barter for who gets the most control. I am hoping that the people of Haiti will not, again, become objects, things to be manipulated in order to have control.
I am hoping, but I do not know that I am optimistic. The native people of Haiti have been so ignored, and are so in need, that they, in desperation, may cling to whatever assistance comes their way, so they can stop living such miserable lives.
Meanwhile, I will be writing CNN and even NPR, asking them why they kept on lifting up the “looting and danger” that would surely come. I wonder if they are even aware of how much they lifted up their concern.
Maybe you could write, too, I mean if you noticed it and it bothered you.
One thing I know is that there is power in the people. We the people are charged with speaking truth to power. The media is the power; we hold and are the truth.
If we can make them aware of how their reporting is affecting people, impacting them, then maybe we can make them care enough to at least become aware of it and do something to change.
We are the voice for the voiceless. In this case, the voiceless of those Haitians who have lost literally everything. It is an insult to be talking about the possibility of looting when people do not have even a place, a shelter to lay their heads, and when they have no food or water.
I’ve wept enough. Now I write. I hope you will, too.
Have a good week.

Pastor Smith