Now is the right time to do what is right

I came across an interesting couple of pages while reading a newspaper recently. If ever there was a mistake in positioning, it was those two pages side by side.

On the left-hand page was an article showing the devastation the people of Haiti were still suffering. On the right-hand page was a big article about Las Vegas showing off some of its lavish hotels and the entertainment that was available.

Those two pages — right there in a nutshell — show the crux of one of the troubles facing the world this New Year — the too very rich and the too very poor and the rest of us just trying to stay afloat.

Now, I have no ill will toward Las Vegas. … In fact, I hope the economy there will rebound as my youngest son owns a home in the area and needs to sell it. Selfish, I know. Especially when so many people in Haiti will never have a home in their lifetime, if they survive cholera to start with.

There are some huge holes — not just rich vs. poor — in the dike numbered 2011, one of those being people seem downright rude and testy.

Take for instance the late Elizabeth Edwards, estranged wife of former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards.

Most of us felt great compassion for her as she faced her last few years with such dignity. She was a classy and gracious woman at all times.

So it was with surprise that I read in that same newspaper that the Westboro Baptist Church set up camp just a block away from her funeral.

Members of the church carried signs protesting homosexuality which, sadly, if that is what they want to do with their time, it is their right to do so.

But one of the signs read, "Thank God for breast cancer," the disease that caused Edwards' death.

How can people who profess to have faith in Christ treat other people so crassly?

It's one thing to have a differing opinion, but that was downright mean and tacky.

The world could use a little more kindness, understanding, moral turpitude and honesty.

And speaking of honesty, perhaps the story of Bernard Madoff can be a parable to be told to business leaders.

His son Mark, possibly an innocent bystander to his father's monstrous crime, committed suicide in his Manhattan apartment in late December, apparently because the scrutiny was just too much for him. Others in the family have changed their last name to avoid it.