The footage from Haiti is absolutely heartbreaking.

If you’ve got a loved one in Haiti, my thoughts are with you. I can only imagine the anguish you must feel today.

Every person there is precious. Every injured person and every fatality represents a disaster for a family. I can only hope that rescuers arrive swiftly to save all those who can be saved, and that relief arrives promptly with food, clean water, and hospital supplies.

I’m donating, as I’m hoping you’ll do, too. Every little bit helps.

And I don’t want to fixate on the casualty figures, as Wolf Blitzer is doing. He acts like he’ll be sorely disappointed if it doesn’t exceed 100,000. He’s turning himself into a pornographer of disaster, a carnival barker of death.

And I don’t want to hear, as I did on the Weather Channel, of all places, about how pathetic Haiti is, and always was. Nor do any of us need to hear the rantings of Pat Robertson blaming yet another calamity on the victims.

I had to turn to BET to hear some welcome insight about how Haiti has a rich history of fighting for freedom and how its art, music, religious practices, and literature add tremendously to the world’s cultural stockpile.

What I want to hear, now, is how the people in Haiti themselves are fighting heroically to save lives.

And I want to know, now, is that our government is doing all it can in this regard, too.

We are not Americans. They are not Haitians. We are all human beings.

Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine. To subscribe for just $14.97 a year, just click here.