Crisis = Danger plus Opportunity

I understand that this is actually a mistranslation of the famous cliche that the Chinese character for “crisis” is an overlay of the characters for “danger” and “opportunity”. Let’s play that out.
Right now, we have a massive humanitarian crisis where rapid fire logistical, monetary and other support would doubtless do a world of good (if delivered quickly enough). We have an American government with little will to do anything beyond a token showing (for which it has duly– and rightly– been criticized). But… we have other immense resources…
Once again, I’m going to go back to my theme: where are Democrats on this? Maybe they’re out there, and I’m just not hearing them. Or maybe, as usual, the silence is deafening.
We can start, of course, with the revolution in Democratic politics: the internet fundraising list. I realize that our perverse election laws are such that the use of such tools for mundane purposes like raising money to save hundreds of thousands or millions of lives and probably staving off worldwide pandemic is probably illegal, but I’m sure high priced legal talent can find away around that. Among other things, John Kerry is sitting on millions and millions of dollars in unspent campaign money (and he is a multi-millionaire anyway, as is his wife).
Certainly, he can seize the bully pulpit right now, and urge the nation (red states and blue) to come together in a massive creative effort to raise money, logistical support and expertise to be brought to bear on the South Asian/East African humanitarian crisis right now. He can urge the hundreds of thousands of Americans who generously gave to his (pathetic and awful) Presidential campaign to give what they can to the humanitarian effort– right now– at internet speed, to save as many lives as we can, and to take American leadership to the forefront of something good for a change, even as our sitting government is content to have us be portrayed as (and, really, BE) a stingy, self-centered, ill-mannered, pariah state, more interested in spreading instability and chaos than in doing good.
It’s long been stipulated that George W. Bush is a dickhead, and we don’t expect much, if any good to come out of that end. But we’re still a free people, with immense resources of money, time, and we would hope, good will. This is an opportunity to do so something constructive– not just because it will score political points (it may, it may not), but for that most fundamental of reasons we used to think Democrats did things: because it’s right..
While waiting for Senator Kerry or other Democrats to act on this (I suspect we’ll be waiting a while), you might want to consider supporting some decent relief organizations, such as Save the Children or CARE or Oxfam or the charity or vehicle of your choice.
Just sayin’…

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