But not everyone is buying into it. See below. (1)
by Micheal Mayo (drop him a line)
After Hurricane Katrinawalloped New Orleans in 2005, the devastated city emptied as evacueesflocked to surrounding states. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama,Georgia — these were the safe havens that became home away from home.
Like it or not, South Florida will almost certainly be pressed intosimilar duty following the catastrophic earthquake that has leveledPort-au-Prince. There’s sure to be a wave of Haitian immigration andemergency relocation here in coming months, legal and illegal, by everyconceivable method. How will South Florida react? With compassion and humanity, I hope.
And with more sensitivity than Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh, I hope.
Robertson, the clueless televangelist, and Limbaugh, the radioblowhard, outdid themselves last week. In the face of unimaginabletragedy, they showed unfathomable insensitivity.
On his 700 Club broadcast, Robertson said Haiti has been “cursed”because its founders, slaves who rebelled against colonial France,”swore a pact to the devil.”
“True story,” Robertson said.
(1) Because the Sun-Sentinel is notorious for “Memory Holing” reader’s comments that offend their editorial staff’s sensitive constitutions, we’re going to post said comments which are available as of Sunday, 17 January.
COMMENTS (77) | Add Comment | Back to your column
Comments:
01400 characters remaining
Hey, I have an idea, Lets move all the Jews from Israel to Haiti.
That will solve two problems.
For one, It will solve the middle east problems.
Number Two, The Jews will solve that God forsaken islands problems.
The Jews would start all kinds of business over there with all that cheap labor to exploit. YOI!
AND with all that work over there the Haitian won’t want to come over here any longer! YEA!
Post66969 (01/17/2010, 2:34 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Senegal offers land to Haitians
Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians could “return to their origin”
Senegal’s president says he will offer free land and “repatriation” to people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.
President Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal.
“The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin,” said Mr Wade’s spokesman, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye.
Tuesday’s earthquake killed tens of thousands and left many more homeless.
Buildings have been reduced to rubble, the distribution of aid is slow, and people have been flooding out of the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince.
“Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land – even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come,” Mr Bemba Ndiaye said.
“If it’s just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region.”
The spokesman emphasised that if a region was given, it would be in a fertile part of the country rather than in its parched deserts, the Associated Press news agency reported.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8463921.stm
realitychech2010 (01/17/2010, 2:31 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Senegal offers land to Haitians
Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians could “return to their origin”
Senegal’s president says he will offer free land and “repatriation” to people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.
President Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal.
“The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin,” said Mr Wade’s spokesman, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye.
Tuesday’s earthquake killed tens of thousands and left many more homeless.
Buildings have been reduced to rubble, the distribution of aid is slow, and people have been flooding out of the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince.
“Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land – even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come,” Mr Bemba Ndiaye said.
“If it’s just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region.”
The spokesman emphasised that if a region was given, it would be in a fertile part of the country rather than in its parched deserts, the Associated Press news agency reported.
realitychech2010 (01/17/2010, 2:30 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Hey, I have an idea, Lets move all the Jews from Israel to Haiti.
That will solve two problems.
For one, It will solve the middle east problems.
Number Two, The Jews will solve that God forsaken islands problems.
The Jews would start all kinds of business over there with all that cheap labor to exploit. YOI!
AND with all that work over there the Haitian won’t want to come over here any longer! YEA!
Post66969 (01/17/2010, 2:10 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Hey Mayo, are you out of your effin mind? There is no way that South Florida or any other part of the United States should absorb more Government dependant individuals. As usual, the Government controlled media will not report that Senegal has offered voluntry reparation including housing and land to the Haitians. This was reported on the BBC, check out the following link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8463921.stm
realitychech2010 (01/17/2010, 1:45 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
We have enough problems already here in America and S. Fla, we can not afford to be a charity foundation for failed nations. We need to stop playing global police and rescue and spend our money helping the Americans that can not find decent paying jobs to support there own families.
It is a travesty what has happened in Haiti and there are charity foundations that are already helping there and I wish them the best of luck. But that country has been failing for generations because the Haitians have never put in the time and effort to put there country on the right track. It is basically a third world country.
If we allow them to move here they will be a huge financial burden on our medical, education and law enforcement agencies for decades. They will never move back to Haiti…. would you?
We can not afford to bailout a failed country.
Cereal_Killer (01/17/2010, 1:43 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
So we take how many? 100, 200, 500 thousand, One Million? Five Million? You are talking well over a billion or maybe even a trillion dollars to take care of all these people here! We already have a national debt that is out of control, our medical and educational systems are also under significant financial pressures. We can’t even provide sufficient shelters for our own homeless!
If we give them all of South Florida and soon it will become another Haiti. Look at the crime rates and problems in the primarily Haitian communities now in the US. Do we want that in every major city in FL?
The problem with Haiti is lack of resources and over-population combined with a long history of repressive dictatorships. They only resource they could have would be tourism, but the violence and deforestation keeps those away! Sometimes it can be helpful for societal change for a group to weather the suffering and rebuild. China solved its own population problem now it is growing rapidly. Perhaps it is time we send very basic supplies and then let the Haitians solve their own problems. Doing otherwise suggests that we feel that they are somehow incapable or inferior.
MikeP101 (01/17/2010, 1:43 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Last Friday I received an e-mail from someone who was complaining about the possible wave of immigration to South Florida – it was someone who was of a group who also complained in the late 1970’s, when the first group of refugess arrived. Just as there are those who always help out in times of crisis, there are also those who do nothing but complain, and as one Pastor said just yesterday, at the time of final judgement he wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of those who decided to sit around and do nothing to help – the same is true of those who decide to do nothing but complain.
Glades2 (01/17/2010, 1:39 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Conservative estimates show here are nearly 100k homeless people right now in the state of Florida. Nearly 25,000 of them are minors. What makes the Haitians any more deserving than these people for our help? In other words, why should we be helping other countries when we clearly can not even take care of our own?
Where is your story and your concern for the American people, don’t they count?
Reality__is__your__friend! (01/17/2010, 1:37 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
I do not think the people reading and posting on this blog even realize the opportunity we have here. Each person willing to help needs to go get licensed as a foster parent so that when these children come thru the system there are foster parents available to care for them. You need to call DCF or Childnet and put your name on the list that you are willing to help an orphaned Haitian child by taking them into your home while those in authority decide how to go about rebuilding their country and the jobs that that will create.
You can give to the Red Cross. You can possibly provide a home and a chance in life to an orphan. Or you can do nothing.
Your choice.
AntiAcorn (01/17/2010, 12:29 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
2-3 yrs from now we will start hearing ‘ They have lifes here” ” They do jobs no one else does” Wonder how fast Mayo will report a rise in crime if their is one Like HOUSTON TX. Compassion is a great thing and geiving to those that need help is what America is all about.
But there has to be a limit at how we harm ourselfs.
Vet52 (01/17/2010, 12:21 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
MAYO—you are clueless!
fgpfla (01/17/2010, 12:13 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
This Mayo guy is out of his mind. Ready to sacrifice all of South Florida without even asking their residents about it…the nerve!!!
robertinmiami (01/17/2010, 12:05 PM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Once you let them in, even if it is for only 1 year, how do you get them out?
Hello555 (01/17/2010, 11:57 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
To all that are making the decision to grant temp visa’s and allow the major influx of haitians….
As Neany Reagan once said so elequently….( Just say NO!!) South Florida and the United States need to lend a hand up….not out! WE CANNOT AFFORD IT!!!!
thomasg123459 (01/17/2010, 11:47 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Mayo your a nit wit…..like we can afford to take thousands of refugees here in South Florida along with all their problems, Health, crime, ignorance, sloveness, etc…yeah like the Katrina Refugees were so wonderful the cities and towns they decended upon could not wait to get rid of them…the crime stats exploded along with the cost of health care and wefare benefits…yeah Mike bright idea…you wanna support them? Maybe a few hundred should decend upon your neighborhood so your guilt ridden white social liberal Dem concience can be clear…give us a break do we not have enough of our own problems here to deal with? ….Temporay is never that…we are still dealing with Castro’s rejects from the Mariel Boat Lift…we were burdened with Fidels rejects and now you wanna shove the Haiti Rejects on the rest of us….enough is enough help em yes but keep them in Haiti…..The free ride for the poor and ignorant is breaking us we cannot afford to take care of our own people….
mattymike123 (01/17/2010, 11:46 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
I’m through of this feeling sorry for third world indigents. Once they let them into the U.S., who’s going to return them to Haiti? The U.S. government? Hah! Send them to Gitmo, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Central and South America. How about Europe? They would help offset the Muslim breeding problem. Mayo, you want them, let them live with you and your neighbors.
barryrcohen (01/17/2010, 11:41 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
While I feel for them, South Florida can not and should not be forced to take everyone. This community is already at it’s breaking point. Jackson hospital just stopped caring for people recieving kidney treatment, why because of the cost. I will surely make donations but there is a limit to everything.
potbill (01/17/2010, 11:38 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
The messiah is cutting billions of dollars from Medicare for the American elderly while at the same time offering free medical care and other perks, not only for the Hatians, but for all illegal aliens. Are you kidding me? Charity begins at home.
nodems4meeee (01/17/2010, 11:36 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Rebuild Haiti.
AlmostaNative (01/17/2010, 11:17 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
I’m there a few times a month for work. And being down there I can say for the most part. They are all savages and care nothing for life. Would have been best for the whole side of that island to slip into the sea and be GONE.
WWIIvet (01/17/2010, 11:15 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
It’s only fair that the 203 other nations of the world take thier fair share of the refugees. The liberal left will use this as an excuse to flood our community with more supporters for the radical left.
MrSmarty (01/17/2010, 11:10 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
HAD_IT, you bet most of them are scammers. I have a relative who was a victim of a staged fender bender, complete with witnesses and everything. Everyone, doctors, hospitals, EVERYONE said that there was virtually nothing wrong with the “victim”.
She was pregnant at the time and went to the hospital several times claiming “premature” labor, which was a hoax. The baby was born one week early and she blamed on the accident.
After 5 years of back and forth with this piece of trash, the insurance company finally settled for $40K. And guess what, that wasn’t the first time that she had gotten a settlement for an accident.
I’m sick and tired of these scammers and the scammers from Latin America who eagerly and willingly show their faces in welfare lines while working under the table, sending money home, and laughing in our faces the entire time. Round up the trash and get it the hell out of here once and for all.
BrowardResident (01/17/2010, 11:03 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
…. there is no hope for the Haitian people ever progressing beyond poverty.
CleoPatriot (01/17/2010, 10:56 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Bad, bad idea. No, no. Let’s all remember this at election time. We all feel sorry for the people of Haiti. It is no solution to bring them to the US. Temporary visas mean that they will stay here forever. We have more than our fair share of Hatian immigrants here in South Florida, legally or not. Wherever they move to, crime goes up and real estate prices go down. Sad but so true. Senegal offered free land and assistance to any Hatian. They should take it. If they truly want to get out of Haiti they will welcome Senegal’s kind offer. We don’t need more unskilled, poor people here in this State.
Pedro_Albano (01/17/2010, 10:53 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Here’s my two cents and concerns… We should always help out our fellow man when needed. This tragic event is no different, however the questions beg to to be asked: 1. Who will be footing the bill, we taxpayers with our economy the way it is? 2. It appeares that other states or even the neighoring countries have not even offered to assist with the influx of thousand of Haitian refugees. Why? 3. As far as the school system here in Florida goes, we know it is a bit below par compared to other systems. It is here you will have a vast amount of student refugees arrive to, most who do not speak English. Many children while in Haiti who had a “8th grade” education thus far may only find themselve able to perform at a 2nd grade educational level in the US. Would we be able to control the potential drop out rates? 4. Will the refugees be here permanently taking up what’s left of our limited resources? I not at all implying we should turn our backs, we just really need to think about what we are potentially getting ourselves into, and openly enlist the other apparently silent states and countries to help out here and absorb the impact.
Citizen1234567 (01/17/2010, 10:46 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good lord, mayo…have you lost your mind??? Compassion, yes…insanity, NO!
“temporary visa’s”….?????? NOTHING is done to track down those who overstay their visa’s now! MOST Haitians are looking for handout and are scammers.
I don’t mind donating to the Red Cross and perhaps the influx of $$$ from the disaster will help take them from a 5th world country to a 3rd world, but NO MORE on our soil. HEAR ME…..NO MORE.
PS I am as liberal as they come, but I have HAD IT.
HAD_IT (01/17/2010, 10:37 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Enough of the racist comments. The Haitians need everyones help but we should help them by sending them food, medicine and by rebuilding their country and infrastructure, not by moving them anywhere into the United States. Even the President of Senegal has offered all Haitians furtile land of their own in his west african nation, which is where many of haitian ancestry came from during the times of slavery. The fact is that we have enough uneducated, free loading criminals here already that we do not need to import several million more. Tha may sound very harsh but it is the truth. We would much better help the Haitian people and ourselves by rebuilding their country and helping to end the corruption of its leaders. Those are the people to blame since the leaders of that country have stolen nearly all previous aid that was sent there.
Judge_Roy_Bean (01/17/2010, 10:36 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
We have enough problems here already!
Damien1962 (01/17/2010, 10:36 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
The American Red Cross says there is a plan to bring as many as 45,000 evacuees from Haiti to Florida, and 4,000 of those refugees could be placed in Orange County……Stop paying your property taxes now..I will be damned if I will pay for this..
valigator (01/17/2010, 10:34 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Mayo … how about if we send a good couple of hundred to your neighborhood .. I feel sorry for them but I do not want anymore here in South Florida .. do you want to make this area more of a third world crap hole ?
Why not send some to Tampa , Jacksonville , Atlanta , Charlotte or better yet The Dominican Republic , Jamaica , Venezuela .. why South Florida ?
I do not understand what this radical liberal agenda is all about ?
I have no problems sending food , medicine , clothes , money … but another wave of Haitians …WHY ???
E407303 (01/17/2010, 10:27 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
We have enough scumbags from South America, Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica so feck those third worlds and let them rebuild THEIR country NOT come here for handout……. we already send them funds! The crime rate is already thru the roof in South Florida and will double like Houston’s has, feck them nignogs !
WVUrocks (01/17/2010, 10:26 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
New Orleans is looking for more people of the “chocolate” color according to Mayor Nagan. That is a good place for the new wave of refugees. South Florida can’t handle any more unskilled, uneducated, unmotivated, unemployed and underachieving people.
frank_furder (01/17/2010, 9:57 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
The Haitian government has grabbed the money decade after decade and we still send it. What do you think is going to happen with this money being sent over there. Rebuild?
Pat60 (01/17/2010, 9:54 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
You are such a Bozo! What is wrong with them going next door to the Domincan Republic? All you do gooders could spend your money helping them out there.
NakinaAce (01/17/2010, 9:48 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
With the billions of dollars now flowing into Haiti to re-build, this idiot Mayo is suggesting Haitians leave. How about staying and re-building your Country. If the money is used wisely these people shoud be able to earn more than they ever have. If everyone leaves, who is it that Mayo suggests stay and re-build? Who is supposed to re-build Mayo? As much as some people hate Rush, and maybe his words were not filled with compassion, he is right. Billions upon billions of dollars have flowed from the US taxpayer to Haiti over the years and what have they done with it. Where is the UN?
bhd2801 (01/17/2010, 9:30 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
a1achas, Let me tell you something. I have NEVER listened to Pat and have listened to Rush for about 10 minutes in my entire life.
But after witnessing the spinning and twisting done by the media on what they both ACTUALLY said, I probably WILL start listening to Rush more because his statement was SPOT ON. The media has done a hatchet job with his statement in an effort to make him look like some kind of whacked-out extremist, we all know it, and WE’RE NOT BUYING IT.
The propoganda that gets perpetuated on the people by the mainstream left-wing media in this country is downright sick. Anyone who listens to these people for too long runs the risk of becoming a brain-dead robot with no capacity to think rationally, kind of like you.
BrowardResident (01/17/2010, 9:23 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Mr Mayo, you do not seem to have many fans. It is obvious that this isn’t about humaity but more of a liberal political agenda that you are pushing, otherwise why mention Rush and Afghanistan in this editorial. You lost me from the moment you made this political. BTW, TPS has been a defacto permanent legal status for those from Central America that keep getting extension, for reasons unknown..oh yeah I forgot, it was never intended for those people to really return, just keep them here until there is amnesty and a path way to citizenship.
Venom72 (01/17/2010, 9:21 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
Haiti is the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the western hemisphere, as well as a myriad of other communicable diseases. This, not to mention the bands of roving violent criminals which infest Haiti. Who will be screening these people prior to trying to assymilate them into South Florida? Oh, and by the way Mike…did you ever listen to Rush’s comments? He never said not to give, or not to be charitable, but basically not to trust the White House or Federal Government to dole out the money, as you will most likely end up on a e-mail distributuion list for Obama’s next campaign fund raising tour. Just another typical Sun Sentinel article full of panic and fear mongoring, but characteristically lacking in facts or research. I am going out on a limb here to predict that in the next article, we will all be considered racists and hate mongers for looking out for the welfare of our own communities and legal US citizens first…Shame on you Mr. Mayo!
FedUp! (01/17/2010, 9:20 AM )
Report Comment
Report item as: (required)
Additional Comments: (optional)
500 characters limit
I have to agree. No more Haitians in S. Florda. They should stay and rebuild their own country with all of our help. The only ones we will be getting are the prisonors that escaped. The majority of Haitians that are here are not law abiding citizens. They have horrible hygiene and will not try to learn our Language and are illiterate. They just sit around casinos waiting to win a promotion.
FloridahDah! (01/17/2010, 9:20 AM )