There is close connection between the earthquake, humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti and the life that most Everett residents lead.

The connection is that we are simple people when you boil it all down.

We have homes or apartments, running water, heat and electricity and health care venues.

We have roads and businesses, food outlets and many, many places to shop.

If this city were hit by a 7.0 Richter scale earthquake as the Haitians were last week, it would be in ruins with most of the residents here losing their homes, their supplies of food and water and the ability to get health care when it is needed.

Everything would be destroyed here as it was destroyed in a relative instant in Haiti.

The docks would be ruined. Our streets and highways buckled, electricity down, no heat during the height of winter and our hospitals trying to deal with tens of thousands of injuries.

However, the likelihood of such a scenario in Everett is slim. But an earthquake here is always a possibility.

So the difference between the human beings living here and the human beings sent into darkness and suffering in Haiti is not so great.

The line between society working and society savaged is about 40 seconds. That’s how long it took to level Port au Prince.

In that realization, it is incumbent on all of us to do what we can to relieve the pain and suffering of the Haitian people.

By helping them, we help ourselves and the community of man.