Anderson Cooper: Before we go tonight, I just want to take a moment to talk about Haiti, one of the places the President of the United States referred to today as a “shithole country”.
I was taught math in high school by a Haitian immigrant named Yves Volel who worked hard, who dedicated himself to teaching kids in America. He ultimately returned to his country of Haiti and was assassinated while running for president.
I spent a lot of time in Haiti; I first went there in the early 1990s as a young reporter. In 2010 my team from CNN was the first international team of journalists on the ground after the earthquake struck. I spent more than a month there and have returned many times on assignment and on vacation.
Like all countries, Haiti is a collection of people. It’s rich and poor, well-educated and not, good and bad. But I’ve never met a Haitian who isn’t strong. You have to be to survive in a place where the government has often abandoned its people, where opportunities are few, and where Mother Nature has punished the people far more than anyone should ever be punished.
But let me be clear tonight. The people of Haiti have been through more. They’ve been through more, they’ve withstood more. They’ve fought back against more injustice than our President ever has.
Tomorrow marks exactly eight years since the earthquake struck Haiti. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed anywhere between 220,000 and 300,000 people. The actual numbers will never be known, because they were buried in unmarked pits. 1.5 million people were displaced. For days or weeks without help from their own government or police, the people of Haiti dug through rubble with their bare and bloodied hands to save complete strangers, guided only by the cries of the wounded and dying.
I was there when a young girl named Bee, who’d been trapped in rubble for nearly a day, was rescued by people who had no heavy equipment. They just had their God-given strength and their determination and their courage.
I was there… when a five-year-old boy named Monley was rescued after being buried for more than seven days. Do you know what strength it takes to survive on rainwater buried under concrete? A five-year-old boy, buried for seven days.
Haitians slap your hand hard when they shake it. They look you in the eye; they don’t blink. They stand tall, and they have dignity. It’s the dignity many in this White House could learn from. It’s the dignity the President, with all his money and all his power, could learn from as well.
On the anniversary of the earthquake, on this day when this President has said what he has said about Haitians, we hope that people in Haiti who are listening tonight in Port au Prince and Jacmel, in Bainet and Miami and elsewhere – we hope they know that our thoughts are with them, and that our love is with them as well.
Thanks very much for watching 360. Time to hand it over to Chris Cuomo for Cuomo Prime Time. Chris?
Chris Cuomo: Well said and an important message, especially tonight. Thank you for that, my friend.
