Haiti

A book I read often to my children when they were young is “Where the Wild Things Are.”  It is a beautifully illustrated book about a young boy’s imagination. The author, Maurice Sendak, upon turning 80 was interviewed by the NYT.  “I hate people,” he said at one point in the interview and I thought, I can relate to this man.  As a matter of fact, I love this man.

You see, I hate people also.  I hate them because I find them stupid and trivial and judgmental and self involved.  Sendak is a gay man who lived with his partner for 50 years until his death, but could never be openly gay for fear of how it might effect his career as a writer of children’s books.  I am a dark skinned, female anesthesiologist who has dealt with stupid white male surgeons for 20 years.

That brings me to the topics of Haiti and the senatorial election in Massachusetts.

Haiti first.  The earthquake in Haiti is indeed a tragedy of epic proportion, but let’s not pretend Haiti was not already a tragedy of epic proportions.  If there had been any international will in the first place, the earthquake would not have had such ravaging effects.  What is truly galling to hear from numerous sources is the silver lining in this particular cloud, building Haiti’s infrastructure from scratch.  What about the 50,000? 100,000? people killed?  Could the analysts have waited at least a short interval before looking at the bright side?  Or maybe they could have concentrated  more attention on how Haiti was screwed  by the colonialist French and the western world thereafter.

Now, the election in Massachusetts.  Martha Coakley lost and by a large, resounding margin.  Does this really make a difference?  My brother, Dilip, always says both parties, Democrats and Republicans, are the same.  I have spent many years arguing with him and even continued to be excited about elections including that of Obama.  But then, I read a story about Max Baucus trying to procure a job for his girlfriend as Attorney General from his state. I fear my brother is right.

And all of this just verifies how I feel about people.