100131-N-6214F-015 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Jan. 31, 2010) A soldier assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division based in from Fort Bragg, N.C., helps a woman carry a 55-pound bag of rice that she received from the World Health Organization at a food distribution site in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communications Specialist Robert J. Fluegel/Released)
Predictably, the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti is dropping out of the news. But on the US Navy image gallery Eye on the Fleet, the story continues to be documented. Surely of the military personnel in these Navy pictures never imagined that their duties would entail what they’ve spent the past weeks doing in Haiti. And yet what I see here is a great willingness to offer help where help is needed, to do what needs doing, brick by brick, box by box, person to person. If there is a grand scheme by which Haiti will be fixed it sure isn’t apparent. The pictures of the newborns and the children are especially poignant: does anyone really believe that these kids’ lives are likely to improve? It takes bravery to act as if there is hope.
Public Domain Images Online 