This is coming from an American, in Haiti that watched the elections happen from inside two different polling stations in two different neighborhoods.

After meeting with Haitian President René Préval, hip-hop star Wyclef Jean said he feels “we are going to be OK” when a final list for presidential contenders comes out Friday. But there were signs late Thursday that Jean, a presidential hopeful himself, might not make the final cut.

Haiti shouldn’t become the latest prize of neocolonial land grabs. Pigmentation in the presidency makes this concern no less troubling. As a United States and world citizen, self-determination is my meditation and prayer for everyone. New shackles attached to strings ostensibly pulled by a Black man in DC doesn’t honor ancestors nor the Creator. Such scheming assures more of the same with added insult to injury that someone considered “one of us” perpetrated it. Crisis offers opportunities to help. The greedy also help themselves to autonomy rightfully belonging to others. Iraq and Afghanistan warn concerned citizens this could be the case again.

Although I am confident that not every Republican shares in the sentiments of either Rush Limbaugh or Pat Robertson, it is nevertheless troubling to hear it coming from my party – one which boasts of a moral majority. ”

“I am so ashamed”, she says “of the position some who have dubbed themselves as Republican voices have taken at a time when the best of the compassionate spirit of those who are Republicans should be actively engaged.

“Mr. Limbaugh, when there is a tragedy of this magnitude where so many lives are lost, and people are left devastated, it is not at time for political ignorance.”

Crisis makes strange bed fellows. That’s one way to view President Obama’s request for Presidents Clinton and George W, Bush to lead relief efforts.