Rebuilding Haiti, Rebuilding America

Yesterday, a friend and colleague (who wishes to remain anonymous) stated her belief that President Obama should hire out-of-work Americans to immediately jump on a plane to help rebuild Haiti. Her suggestion was that all kinds of unemployed workers,including architects, electricians, drywall installers, plumbers, bankers, large equipment operators etc. could all be asked to show up at regional airports, become temporary employees of the federal government, and be transported to Haiti. She also suggested that, since the island is so small, these workers could be housed in cruise ships off of Haiti's coastline.

I would also like to add to that these American workers should guide apprenticeship programs to teach the Haitians the trades, to teach the Haitians how to run their country when our citizens return to America.

Today, I read an article in the Washington Post where they suggested that Haiti's earthquake disaster could be an opportunity to rebuild Haiti

The early thinking encompasses a broad swath of issues. Policymakers in Washington are considering whether to expand controversial trade provisions for Haiti and how to help fund the reconstruction for years into the future. The rule of law needs to be strengthened, particularly with regard to matters of immediate concern, such as property rights, inheritance issues and guardianship in hard-hit neighborhoods.

And somehow, development officials agree, the recovery effort must build up, not supplant, the Haitian government and civil society, starting with putting Haitian authorities at the center of a single, clearly defined plan to rebuild Port-au-Prince and its environs in a far sturdier form.

"National disasters, as awful as they are, you want to seize those moments, use that awful, awful opportunity, to strengthen the ability of national and local authorities to act for the benefit of their citizens," said Jordan Ryan, the assistant administrator of the U.N. Development Program. There is, to an extent, a development framework in place from efforts underway before the earthquake involving the Obama administration, the United Nations, a huge network of international aid groups and a Haitian government that, despite corruption, was viewed as more reliable than any in years. The United States budgeted $292 million in assistance to Haiti this year, including food aid, infrastructure funds and money to fight drug trafficking. And the Haitian economy grew by 2.5 percent in 2009, despite the global recession.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/yj4nuv2

It is also my belief that we should use such a model to rebuild our inner cities, which are certainly not on the same horrifying scale of disaster as Haiti, but are disasters for the families and their communities (as well as for our nation's future) nevertheless. We should also have our government purchase American-made tools and equipment for both the "Hire American" efforts in Haiti and our inner cities. We are losing an entire generation of future Thomas Edisons, of future Barach Obamas, to the short-sighted educational policies that segregate students by perceived ability/disability and other characteristics, by sometimes abusive police on police forces that utilize uninformed policing strategies, and completely broken down infrastructures and communities.

We cannot afford to lose Haiti to chaos worsened by a devastating earthquake, and we cannot afford to lose our inner cities and our future workforce to neglect and chaos.
Our country still benefits daily from the employment of unemployed Americans via the Works Projects Administration, which hired unemployed Americans in the 30's and 40's.

These days, our country's administration seems to prefer to contract-out work to middlemen, but adding that layer costs money, and seems to reduce accountability. Instead of funding middlemen and pencil-pushers, let's have our government directly hire workers to rebuild Haiti and America. Let's rebuild /Haiti AND America TODAY!