Japan needs our help

I am in pain with what is happening in Japan after the biggest earthquake in recent recorded history. The quake has been upgraded to a 9.0 on the Richter scale and the damage that has been ripping Japan apart has shown once again that our human endeavors can be wiped out with a wave of nature's hand.

Spend time with your loved ones today. Get back to what really matters and love each other. Tell them, show them your heart while you have them close. We never know what is just around the corner.

So what we need to do is act. We need to work together as humans and help each other. We cannot simply hope for things to get better on their own; we have the ability to reach out and help when disasterer strikes.


The best place to start is with the Red Cross. The Red Cross has a long history of integrity and service to those in need and we would do well to emulate them. Please if you can spare any money, time or blood donate to the Red Cross.





Disaster Update: Family Linking for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

There are several methods people can use to find information about missing family members. The Red Cross is still unable to accept International Disaster Inquiries for Japan. Please encourage members of your community to utilize the ICRC website and to keep calling and to trying to contact other family members who live in the region. Even though communication networks are overloaded right now, the situation may change and access to mobile networks and the internet may improve.

ICRC Family Links Website Available for Japan
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), working closely with the Japanese Red Cross, has
launched a special Family Links website to help people seeking to re-establish contact with family
members and friends.

People in Japan and abroad can register on the website to inform their family and friends that they are
safe and provide their current contact details, while those looking for people can check the list for
information. They can also register the names of family members and friends, encouraging them to get in
touch.

The website is at http://www.icrc.org/familylinks.

Ignoring what hurts

Every time I walk into the city I start counting. I notice the first number usually huddled out of sight. I step over and continue to count the numbers swelling as I reach the downtown area. I notice more counts and I start a second count in my head to acknowledge the responses.


I usually stop counting when my heart can't take anymore, on some days that is one on others ten. Every number is a piece of myself tearing away as I do the second category of denial: seeing and refusing. The second category is better than the vast majority response: outright ignoring and denying humanity, but it still makes me feel like a shell of a person.


I'm talking of course of the people suffering from an economic downturn of years and seasons. The city has a homeless population that is rising with every turn of the earth, yet we pat ourselves on the back with pointless city wide counts that announce their approach like a child yelling out a count for a game of hide and seek. The city wide count of homeless is ineffective as the homeless simply retreat into their buildings, parks and urban forests. The count is simply a way of saving face. I don't count like that.

I count and look at every person who is on the street. I look and try to give them a smile, food, money if I have it and I try even harder to see them as people and not failures who have somehow brought this upon themselves. We cannot afford to think of ourselves as seperate anymore when we see the numbers increasing especially amongst the young.


The most disheartening fact is that the city of Seattle has not even made the ending of institutional poverty a core part of their priorities. Instead we have laws and ordinances making it harder for the downtrodden to make any type of living because we don't want to scare the visiting tourists from Wisteria Lane who would hold a clothe to their noses if they wanted to even recognize someone was there.


Instead of making some changes and choices to give shelter, education and mental health help they need, we have chosen to be satisfied with an annual count that is meant to soothe and not inform. When are we going to make serious reform in regards to the poor and impoverished? We cannot ignore them forever if we want to be able to look ourselves in the mirror. We hug our children and kiss our loved ones while we watch our fellow people suffer.


We need to have a public outcry in order to put the pressure on community groups, churches, and government. We do not want more laws making being homeless a crime, but we want a paradigm shift away from blame and towards understanding. There are numerous groups involved in eradicating poverty and many of them have made the difference in scores of people's lives, but we cannot simply write a check to Real Change, or drop off an old pair of shoes at Good Will, we have to make concrete changes in the way we think of our fellow person.


Give your shoes to charity, write checks and buy papers from Real Change, but don't start subtracting from your count with every handout. People need a hand up. We need to make it unacceptable to ourselves and our city that people live in tents and garbage pails. It needs to tear at us every time we sip on our latte and then shake our head saying we don't have any to spare. The clock is ticking and it is time we stop hitting the snooze button.

Progressive Help for Haiti

The earthquake in Haiti has not only destroyed countless lives and property, but has also exposed the underlying problems that the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere have been battling with since its inception. Haiti is is need of help and the sluggishness of aid is not only a result of an overall lack of humane efforts when there is no economic gain and a poorly run and shattered infrastructure. For those who are drawn to help there are many ways to aid the hurting country.

Be the Change: Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is one of the most effective NGO's operating in developing countries. The organization often is one of the few aid agencies to gain access through its use of partnerships and non partisan outlook on humanitarian aid. Mercy Corp has a campaign to get into Haiti and donations are the best way to get involved.

The following are a few ideas on where your actions can make a difference sent to Sustainable Seattle from Michael Kieschnick, President of CREDO Action from Working Assets.

Give to Doctors Without Borders

Doctors Without Borders-a group CREDO members support with their phone bills-operates one of the only free trauma centers in Port-au-Prince as well as an emergency hospital in the capital for pregnant women, new mothers and newborn children. All three of its primary medical centers have collapsed, but DWB has already set up temporary shelters and is offering emergency care on the ground.

Tell President Obama: Grant Temporary Protected Status on Haitians living in the US

President Obama has ordered his Department of Homeland Security to temporarily halt all forcible deportations to the disaster zone, but this falls far short of what human rights groups are asking for. The president should grant Temporary Protected Status to undocumented Haitian refugees in the U.S. Refugees from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia and Sudan are afforded this status. To refuse to do so for Haitians would be irresponsible and immoral.