I was watching CNN when I first saw the images coming from Haiti showing the chaos and terror of the aftermath of the earthquake that toppled buildings killing thousands and rending so many more homeless. At the same time I was on my computer checking Gmail when a friend Creighton g-chatted me and said, Decker we have to do something.
He and his friend Darryl were in the midst of organizing something, anything, which would help the people of Haiti. As Darryl and Creighton explained to me what they were planning to do the outreach strategy began to take shape, the mobilization of our social networks.
They mobilized Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, email and any other outreach tool and all were put into play as we recruited college friends, work friends, our happy hour email lists, and local promoters to support what was not just an event to raise money for Haiti but a call to action for our generation that mobilization around our worlds most vulnerable is not an isolated need but something that will define our generation.
We have access to the tools of Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, tumblr, text messaging and endless Smartphone applications for reasons more than finding the easiest route to the mall, updating your relationship status or commenting on the BET Awards.
We have more opportunity to use these new communication mediums to create intentional conversations around the most pressing issues facing our society and or future.
People have said, “we have lots of issues going on, not just Haiti that need our help”. To that I would say I agree, the Tsunami, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, this earthquake provide us with an opportunity to be reminded of our daily responsibility to ensure that the human culture is one which makes a priority to help those who need it, both around the world and most importantly in our community.
Our money jars, happy hour fundraisers, benefit concerts and social media campaigns taken up to support Haiti is more than the immediate assistance we are hoping to provide for those suffering from this horrendous event. It is an expression of our deep need to do something for others, that our human compassion though often devalued is something that links us all. We can’t watch television and see babies dying and people flattened by crumbling buildings, and see bodies of young people piled high like trash and not do something.
The defining attribute of our generation is our commitment to service, compassion and helping those around our community and across the world who are helpless, who are in need. We start Facebook causes daily, we send twitter articles about education issues or injustice in our community, we rally around a friend who gets sick and has no insurance, we march with Iranian friends who ha
