PERSPECTIVE ON HAITI

It pays to keep old books that no one is talking about but that you dimly perceive contain things that “you ought to know” !     I bought this book a long time ago:

Logic tells me I should have discarded this book long ago to make room for more contemporary books.   But I didn’t.    In the back of my mind I thought that knowing who some of these people are would be valuable somehow.

After seeing many hours of news footage about the chaos and tragedy in Haiti this week, I have that vague feeling: ‘It doesn’t have to be like this.”    And why is it “like this”?

The news channels are showing us some success stories, I suppose wherever they can find success.    So far, every success story, every sign of hope, every help that has been given has been associated with a Christian organization or with Haitian people who live their Christian faith.    What if…..what if….what if all nine million people in Haiti lived the Christian faith?    

Would there be street justice like this?

Would there be need for this?

I don’t know.   But scenes like this reminded me of that book above.  Inside that book, one of the “Ten Christians”  was a man named Pierre Toussaint.    Catholic;  slave;   honorable, Christian gentleman who gave freely of the fruits of his labor to help others, even his owners.   

The household he  belonged to moved from Haiti to New York City in the late 18th century,  and Pierre Toussaint lived a life of hard work and dedication to the welfare of others.  Whether as a slave or then later on as a free man,  he was a pleasure to be around and a saintly example  of a  Catholic man.

I wrote much about his life at The Spruce Tunnel, so to avoid a double posting, I’ll just give you a link here:   Pierre Toussaint.

It’s the reading of a book that I want to commend for you here.   The reading of any worthy book.   The life of Pierre Toussaint that I had remembered from this book has given me more context with which to make sense of the breakdown of society in Haiti today.    Not answers;  just context that I wouldn’t have had, had I not read this dusty little used book.   

What would Pierre Toussaint do in today’s Haiti if he were there?  What would I be doing if I were there?

Here is a quote by M. Toussaint that somebody recorded:  ” I go to one house, and they cry, cry, cry, cry — somebody dead.   I go into another and it is all laughter.   I go into another and it is all shut up, dark…somebody is very sick.   I go to another and it’s all dancing…flowers, and wedding dresses.   I say nothing, but it makes me think a great deal.”

I thank this valuable book for carrying those words – and his life – to me.