Yeah, I saw that go around on Facebook, too. It started with “Shame on America” there, though, and I think that’s the key point that the Faceboogers were trying to make – that America needs to take care of our own first, and only then reach out to help third world countries in distress.
First, I don’t think there’s ever any shame in showing compassion to those more needy than we are. Face it – there’s a huge difference between being poor in the U.S., and being trapped in rubble for a week in the hemisphere’s only Third World country, hoping you don’t die.
There’s also this: to be the Big Man On Campus In Hemisphere and not help out (like so many smaller countries helped us after Katrina) would be a public relations nightmare. Whether or not we have the largest economy on the globe (we do), the global image is that we’re large and in charge and if we don’t reach out, there’s something deeply wrong with our foreign policy. Plus, have you ever noticed that hungry people are seldom content to just go die in a corner? No, they usually cause social and political unrest. What we don’t need is a world full of hungry people with a bone to pick with the United States. I know we could smoosh Haiti with our thumb, metaphorically speaking, but this is actually my argument for all foreign aid.
There’s always going to be a huge need for help. It’s a hole that will never be filled, so people sometimes tune it out. On the other hand, we have images of, frankly, hell coming from Haiti, and that slaps people across the heart and makes them want to help. Let them! I bet, in the most Utilitarian manner, that a dollar spent ending suffering in Haiti, is a dollar well spent.