What I've Learned from Haiti

I want—always—to permeate the membrane, and I believe that obeying that urge not only is crucial to me personally, but conveys moral meaning and purpose.

Earlier this year Blue Ear Books founder Ethan Casey, author of Bearing the Bruise: A Life Graced by Haiti, was invited to reflect on the legacy of Locally Haiti, the Denver-based nonprofit his father co-founded in 1989. The result was a long essay:

I first went to Haiti forty-two years ago, at age sixteen. It was the first time I had ever been outside the United States. My wife refers to the comfortable town in Wisconsin where I grew up as Lake Wobegon. I learned from personal experience that, if you go from such a town to Haiti and back as an impressionable teenager, you never really go all the way back. … For me, everything refers back to Haiti.

Learn about Haiti’s history and its relevance to U.S. history and society by reading the full essay here.