Hero Despised

I saw this on Facebook last night:

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

Ok. What. the. HELL?!?!? Are you kidding me?! I find the entire attitude behind this statement to be offensive! So let's just reframe it, shall we?

America: I am so proud of you. Despite all our short-comings, all the problems we have to deal with at home, when someone needed help, we put our differences aside and we came. We gave. We helped. We dug deep to the tune of over $100 million. That's over a third of the entire global contribution. And that doesn't even begin to touch on the $1 billion plus that we've given to them over the last 5 years. This is what we do. Because we're Americans.

To those who do not share this love: The italicized statement above is a total piece of GARBAGE. We are not the only country with homeless, with hungry children, with elderly and mentally ill who need care. That's an asinine statement. To denigrate us just because we have the prosperity and the generosity of spirit to give in times of crisis, even when we haven't solved every single one of our own problems yet, only makes us greater, and you more petty, mean and small. Shame on YOU.