Putting Things In Perspective Hoosier-Style

In order to understand more what it's like in Haiti, imagine the entire city of Indianapolis

plus some of the outlying areas

being reduced to ruins with countless people dead and/or injured.

That would pretty well describe the extent of the tragedy and damage over in Port-Au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

In order to get a handle on the death toll (estimated as being anywhere from 70,000 to 250,000), imagine that--at the very least--all of the people living in Anderson are now dead, plus some from near-by communities as well.  Imagine that it could be possible that all of the people living in Madison County are now dead--and that there is death happening outside the boundaries of the county as well.

Imagine a death-toll so great that having proper funerals and burials

is seldom, if ever, an option--meaning that the alternative will be mass disposal of unidentified, rotting human remains...

Imagine surviving an earthquake that has taken place in Indianapolis and knowing that the help you needed to continue to survive is so close but yet so far away

--kept from you by a combination of traffic jams and fear that, by the time people got to you to help you, you will have gone stark-raving mad so that you would attack them (even if you were showing few if any signs of doing so).

Imagine being young--only a couple of years past your high school graduation--

and being shot in the back by trigger-happy police because they thought you were looting when you really weren't (And what if you WERE looking for food to eat from items that were going to go to waste if somebody didn't eat them?).  One more thing. . .How did those police ever find the time to shoot you when they were, just days ago, too busy to come and help you and others to get to a better location instead of just leaving you to fend for yourselves?

Imagine this--and please open up your heart and your pocketbook and give to these hurting people!

*A very special thanks to the many people whose photographs I found with a Google search and used to make the reality of Haiti after the earthquake hit home with more impact.