"SHAME ON YOU AMERICA" I've blown my Top. No TOP TEN TUESDAY, I'm FUMING!

I promise this post will make little sense because I have so much to say and, undoubtedly, I’ll have a hard time communicating it. This post will likely make people just as angry as a Facebook status made me. That's fine. It's one of the beautiful rewards of forward thinking and free speech.

I am so angry right now; so mad that I'm physically shaking. I hate ignorance. I hate it with a passion. Yesterday I heard people talking about a status, which was circulating around Facebook and sounded quite nasty but I hadn't read it and didn't have any friends who had it on their update. Until this morning. I awoke to find this status update on Facebook.

"Shame on you America: the only country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment - yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations. 99% of people won't have the guts to copy and repost this."

Oh, I have the guts to repost it. Yes I do. I just have the intelligence NOT to.

Let’s look at each one of these “facts.”

We are the only country where the homeless go without shelter?
True, many are without. We are also one of the only countries with homeless shelters, soup kitchens, clothing closets, and food pantries.

We are the only country where children go to bed without eating.
While true, we also have food stamps, welfare, WIC and, again, food pantries.

Elderly without meds?
Yes, there are struggles to provide medication to elderly. But we also provide some forms of public health insurance (Medicaid, Medicare, although flawed, such do exist) But why don't you run a little experiment? I urge you to go to an emergency room and leave your insurance card at home. Tell them you have a debilitating migraine... see if they turn you away. They won't. Further, they will probably give you a CAT scan.

Lastly, ah, the one topic I've been dying to attack. Mentally ill without treatment.

Hahahaha. Pardon me while I piss my pants laughing. Many people who have a mental illness refuse treatment. It's part of the illness, Einstein. Many agencies provide FREE treatment (yes, that is no cost) to those who cannot afford treatment. There are services available.

I will be the FIRST to admit that I'm a conservative with my money. I like to earn my money and have it go into my checking account. I work very hard for my health insurance, for my home, for my "extras." But this is one of the few countries where that is my OPTION. If I didn't want to do this, I have the option to NOT do this.

I am so very lucky to live in America. We have a stable government (for the most part- not that I'm in love with the next 3 years, but that's another topic) we have free speech and access to services. We have regulations that we follow (building, education, transportation, medical, agricultural and so forth) that make our country safer and cleaner to live in. We have clean drinking water and we do nothing to get it. We simply turn on our faucet. Have you bothered to look at what poverty stricken countries drink, or have to do to get clean drinking water? Children are drinking water that many of us wouldn't even do our dishes in.

Here’s a fact:

In China, you can't "google" certain topics. Their government won't allow you to. In America, we can find ways to make a bomb online, do public searches on people we dislike, and zoom in, via satellite, on someone's house and neighborhood. If these simple things were taken from us, we would be outraged. Would we not? We are a privileged nation but, as citizens, we also seem to have a sense of entitlement like these things are our right. Isn't wonderful that we have such ignorance?

Haiti is the size of Maryland. There were over 200,000 orphans in Haiti PRIOR to the earthquake. The life expectancy is 51 years old. At 51, we aren't even near retirement age in America. At 51 we still have some "good working years left in us." What contributes to the lowered life expectancy in Haiti? Well, education for one. I'm not suggesting that being smart helps you live longer, but it helps you access services, create and appropriately use technology, transportation, communication and so forth.

Nutrition is another obstacle contributing to 51 short years. Haiti has lost their soil, which means in Haiti the earth is tired and not yielding. They export mangoes as a means to import rice. Rice makes up about 20% of Haitian diets. When there is little less than 4% of soil left to produce exports to import rice, a nation begins starving. The soil in most places in Haiti has eroded down to bedrock, making fallow land unyielding. As a nation's soil goes, so goes the nation.

In the U.S., we urge our children to drink their milk, eat their spinach, and take their vitamins. We bring them to the doctors to get shots that strengthen their immune system; we bring them when they have the sniffles, and once per year, "just because." Parents in Haiti encourage their children to eat mud pies because it fills their bellies so they don’t feel hungry.

In 2006, the GDP per capita for the United States was ~$43,000. Haiti ~ $500. Chew that fact over. I have a computer worth more than that. I have jewelry worth more than that. Many people, like me, do too.

There are many things wrong with the Unites States. Believe you me; I have not put us up on a pedestal. But, I personally, would not want to live anywhere else. I love America. The fact that you can sit at home and formulate the statements such as the nasty one above, speaks clearly to your privilege. If you don't think we help "ours" enough, than do something; give more of your paycheck to social services, give money to the homeless. Better yet, take someone in. Or, wait at the pharmacy and pay for the elderly person's medication. Oh wait, what's that? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Many countries came to our aid when we experienced 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and various other tragedies. We are the world's superpower; fortunately, we don't need much assistance but, THEY CAME ANYWAY.

I could go on and on. I’ll stop before I stroke out. I am lucky. I wouldn’t trade my place with theirs, but if our great nation occupies 12 TV stations to raise money (and hopefully awareness) for the needs of many, I won’t stand in the way and I’ll be the first on the horn. Get past the fact that we’re helping Haitians. We’re helping human beings. If one can’t understand that, then, SHAME ON YOU.

Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. — Chinese Proverb.