Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island

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Presidents Message - February 2010
-- Posted Feb 02 2010
I heard the initial reports on the all news radio station. An earthquake had hit Haiti. As the reports came in, the magnitude of the disaster became apparent; the poorest people in North America were again suffering. I felt for them, but in an abstract way – the way I feel bad for any of the faceless billions in the world who suffer from poverty, from disease, from brutality.

At work I saw the news reports of the unfolding disaster on my computer screen. Slowly the realization hit me – I work at a hospital in Brooklyn, NY, home of the largest contingent of Haitians in America. I’m head of a Union local of 700 trained Nurses: a few quick phone calls and I found out that over 100 of my Nurses were of Haitian descent. The phone calls soon started to come in: Are we sending our disaster team, Can I get leave to go to my country, I’m a trained professional, and I need to get home to help. No longer was this an abstract disaster, this was affecting people I know, my coworkers, and my friends.

I was dragged into the usual planning meetings going over what we could do: both in Haiti and here in Brooklyn. Procedures were set up to grant leaves to those medical personnel who would be going, counselors and Psychiatrists being made available for our workers and at sites in the community – the usual disaster plans.

Nothing, however prepared me for what came next. With a list of our Haitian employees, I made rounds with the Director of Nursing and our hospital Chaplain to assess the situation among employees. We started in the basement of the hospital – Orthopedics and Chemotherapy – but really needed to go no further. Of the first group of five nurses that we spoke to, there were 15 confirmed deaths of family members – an aunt, an uncle, and some cousins. Three of their family homes had collapsed, other had relatives still unaccounted for. They were working, caring for our patients, because they didn’t know what else to do. It was no better or easier on any other of the hospital floors – virtually every Haitian employee had lost or couldn’t find information about their family members. This was no longer an abstract disaster; these were my friends, who were suffering,

On my way home I decided to stop off at one of our satellite clinics, a small family practice facility in East New York, to brief the nurses there on the hospital’s planning. I’ve known two of the four nurses for almost 20 years and consider them friends. No difference here, both of these nurses had homes that had collapsed, but were fortunate not to have had close family fatalities. Both had not slept since the disaster, both weren’t able to eat properly. They were going through the motions of work, but their thoughts were a thousand miles away.

To me the Haitian earthquake is no longer one of the many disasters that occur throughout the world – where you feel bad for the people, you make your donation, and you sort of wait for the next hurricane or earthquake to occur. It now has a face to it. It’s no longer a tragedy where there’s a three-degree separation between me and the victims, there’s no longer any separation.

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