Preaching patience.

In domestic squabbles over healthcare? Certainly. You don't want to make a bad decision with no public or financial support behind it (understanding that even the most public advocates are leaving the "we just don't know how it all will balance" escape clause open, to divorce themselves from advocating the reform plan should messy financial straits ensue).

But Haiti? Patience, waiting? Hell no.

Boots on the ground. Today. If we have money to rebuild the states in the Middle East -- and how many times does building occur, only to be knocked down again? See Gaza -- we have money to help our neighbor.

I laugh at the "but we're not wanted there" angle. Yes we are. This isn't Iraq with the oilfields and a stable government we oppose. This isn't Afghanistan with American troops rotating in a tribal country that has been passed on by foreign powers like a hot potato. This is Haiti, our impoverished neighbor.

If the U.S. military can't organize and get it together enough to distribute emergency aid and direct sanitary efforts in overseeing Haitians burying their dead -- well, let's not go there. Of course, massive rebuilding will be necessary.

Now you tell me: do you want Haiti's humanitarians troubles washing ashore on the beaches of South Florida -- do you want massive immigration policies opening the doors to uneducated, impoverished immigrants? Where? South Florida's troubled economy? The Dakota plains? The meatpacking plants in the Midwest? No. That might be a temporary solution, for a few thousand, but no way can America provide for all of Haiti's needs here.

This is a wise investment -- rebuilding Haiti. America needs to lead a multi-lateral effort. In some ways, the natural disaster has opened an opportunity -- everything is destroyed in the capital city. There's no tearing down -- they've hit bottom. It's time to look, and think, up.

But waiting won't cut it. Decide now, America. Are we in, or out? Is this another short-term effort -- text HAITI, donate $10, and forget about it? Or do people really care about saving lives, building democracies, and taking the necessary steps to "sell" the goodness of Americans, even where there are no oil fields encouraging us?

Henry Kissinger probably would write off Haiti. Not as valuable geopolitically as the oil-rich states that border Israel. And look at what we've spent there for questionable results. But closing our eyes to the real sufferings of people without access to even rudimentary healthcare ... that would be a shame.

In or out? Is the money there worldwide -- is the will? -- to sacrifice our own standard of living, voluntarily, to help lift up others? Something tells me that how the Haiti situation plays out on the world stage, whether America is capable of doing in 2010 what she did in 1945, will affect the war on terrorism -- if only for the p.r. value -- more than we know. Cmon -- is defending a settler's child from the scratches sustained by falling plaster from a poorly constructed Palestinian rocket really worth all that much more than pumping in antibiotics and sanitary systems that will save the lives of thousands of Haitians?

What if by cutting Israel loose and instead concentrating more economic resources on Haiti, Israel is encouraged to rethink her own land-settlement policies, and come up with something soon that all sides can live with? The pictures out of Haiti, I think, are putting a lot of human suffering into perspective. And perhaps causing some, in tight economic times, to consider better investments for America, where we might all get more bang for our buck, in terms of concrete results.

The Haitians would be grateful, I am sure.