Whatever Wednesday: Haiti

After suffering what has already been documented as unfathomable decimation, the half-island nation of Haiti suffering a second earthquake this morning, checking in at a 6.0 rating on the Richter Scale. It's one of that instances where it seems like adding insult to injury. Just when relief and aid are starting to flow, we're offered a reminder that anything can happen. It feels like nearly everyone has offered their opinion and their sympathies on the events that are transpiring in Haiti, but thoughout all the news coverage and the facebook posts and the e-mails that I've seen over the past week or so, I hadn't heard anything like what I heard yesterday morning.

From what I've seen, Tampa is a pretty decent market for radio morning shows. We have several nationally syndicated personalities, and one in particular that's received a great deal of attention recently, both on and off the air. A few weeks ago (as some of you may have seen or heard about), Hulk Hogan came back to wrestling what what feels like the seventeenth time. I guess alimony costs more than dignity these days, who knows. But when Hogan returned to the ring with Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling, he didn't come alone. No, somehow or another, he managed to bring his good buddy in real life and on the airwaves with him as a backstage interviewer: Bubba the Love Sponge. Joining you in your car every morning locally on 102.5FM, The Bone, Bubba can be heard spouting an opinion on just about anything, most of the time at a volume reserved for informercials and monster truck rallies... at 6AM in the morning.

Now, for clarification purposes, I'll sometimes catch myself listening to Bubba for a good while if I'm in the car for any extended period of time by myself. I do this for the same reason that I listen to people like Rush Limbaugh or Jim Rome or even NPR: they're all entertaining in their own way. Rome has his own style that, if you listen long enough, you can appreciate. NPR has great information and sometimes some pretty eye (ear?) opening documentaries. The people who call into Rush Limbaugh are often so misguided and ignorant-sounding that it gives me a good laugh. And with Bubba (I refuse to repeat the rest of his "title"), you just listen long enough to hear someone call in (like Mick Foley did the other day) and make him sound like the misguided and ignorant idiot.

For years, Bubba has been known as one of Hulk Hogan's real life buddies. He goes so far as to call him Terry whenever he talks about him, as if to reinforce the thought that he's earned the right to address him by his real name (Terry Bollea; you can see why he went with Hulk). It's because of this, I'm sure, that he was given the position with TNA. It's also because of this, I'm relatively sure, that he feels he can get away with saying just about anything he wants. Well, that and the fact that he's trying to drive up ratings by being controversial. That's part of why he chose the moniker that he did as well.

Anyway, back on track. Yesterday morning (and apparently on the TNA broadcast this week), Bubba decided to spout his own personal views on the Haiti crisis: they don't deserve our aid. He offered what I consider the wrong answer for the right reasons: we shouldn't be helping Haiti and pouring millions of dollars' worth of donations into a country that isn't our own when we have enough problems here that could use those same funds to better ourselves. He talked about our homeless population, our starving children, our problems that need to be fixed and addressed in one united front. I don't necessarily disagree with him there. We're in a severe national debt crisis, we have been for quite some time, and many people are giving more than they can really afford to help the less fortunate in Haiti. Bubba said that celebrities and news stations and others are talking about Haiti, donating to the cause, and making on-site appearances not for the sake of the cause, but to boost their own popularity. I don't necessarily disagree with this either. I've seen plenty of news broadcasts and celebrities talking about Haiti without showing them actually doing anything, but that doesn't mean that they haven't. However, I don't think some kid whose thatch hut has just been crumbled into dust and ash gives a damn what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie think about "the tragedy." He just wants help.

And that's what brings me to the point of this week's Whatever Wednesday. Whether you want to help here or abroad, whether you're moved by sudden, tragic world events or you feel your own home's suffering every day, whether you're a philanthropic billionaire or you simply donate a little time here and there when people need a helping hand, nothing changes the fact that we all need to be a little more giving, we all need to pitch in just a little more, and we all need to help those less fortunate than us. Everyone who is reading this is likely to have something to be thankful for, and when you think about that one thing, I want you to think about somebody that doesn't have that. You love the house you live in? Think about the guy standing at the intersection you pass every day who doesn't have anywhere to rest at night apart from an underpass. You love your family? Think about those who have lost theirs and how alone they must feel. You love your freedom? Think about the countries where people are struggling just to keep what they work night and day to achieve. There are always going to be people in the world that need help, here or abroad, but the bottom line is that if you can help? You should. It's like my favorite verse says: "Freely you have received, freely give."

So, give... however you see fit.