EDITORIAL: Helping Haiti starts by caring

Imagine waking up one day to the sound and feel of an earthquake. As Californians, it's safe to say we have all had this occur, but think about waking up to an earthquake so huge it killed thousands of people and left your city in ruins.

Haiti has suffered from this kind of tragedy. We have all heard about it on the news; the people dying, found under the rubble, the survivors trying to hold on, and the heroes helping to save them. We have seen pictures of houses smashed, of streets ruined and whole buildings collapsed, and pictures of the body bags, and hundreds being carried away in them.

What if it was your mother, father, friend, brother, sister, spouse, your child or any loved one? The pain of losing that person and seeing one's world falling apart would be beyond devastation.

A little bit of remorse and sympathy for Haiti is not enough. Even though we may not have felt the earthquake ourselves, the whole world has been impacted by it. We need to care, because people are hurting. In case you haven't noticed, we are all humans, as are the people in Haiti. Just because we are separated by an ocean and in different countries, does not mean we don't have to care.

What if we had been the ones hurt by the quake? We live in California, which sits on one of the world's largest fault lines, the San Andreas. We are due for a quake, a big one, and when that hits, we're going to want help. We're going to want people to care.

The earthquake is the second most powerful to hit Haiti in a century, reaching 7.0, and was felt as far away as Cuba, according to CBSNEWS. Haiti's government recently raised the death toll to 230,000 deaths. Many more have been injured and nearly half a million of the survivors are still lacking basic necessities such as clean water, food and housing. Many live in tents in the streets of Port-au-Prince.

There are countless ways to help Haiti. From simply texting 9009 to donate 10 dollars through Red Cross, to organizations such as Children's Hunger Fund, and the Clinton/ Bush Haiti fund, World Vision, Habitat for Humanity, just to name a few. There are events going on all around us, even lemonade stands and bake sales donating their proceeds to Haiti.