Hello again. I hope your Mother's Day was lovely if you celebrated such. I hope it was tolerable if you find yourself in that place of longing, of pressing your nose to the glass of mother-worship, wondering when your time will come. I remember. I was there, and all I can tell is what I learned which is a) service to others really does help, taking the time to brighten somebody else's day really does help, whether it's taking charge of giving the moms a break or arranging brunch or visiting a nursing home ... it helps ... and b) where there's a will there's a way.

So, moving on ...

We debated today's lead story: do we go with more on Myanmar and the ongoing effort to get supplies in there? Do we take up the Presidential race? A lot of talk over the weekend about Sen. Clinton's "hardworking white Americans" comment - clearly it seemed to some reporters that the comment was under reported. Here's a Richard Prince column on that subject.

We talked about that on Friday both in the political chat and in Barbershop. Over the weekend the Sunday talk shows did seem to pick up on it, but some of our listeners told us they think Sen. Clinton is getting a pass on race in a way that Sen. Obama never could. Is she being allowed to engage in race baiting and getting away with it? Here's an interesting essay from Peggy Noonan for example.

Or is she just stating the obvious, or rather restating other people's analyzes? So our question - Should we do more on this story?

But then we thought - what's an important story that perhaps is not getting the attention it deserves? Part of our mission is to tell the story that ISN'T getting told elsewhere ... which led us to Haiti.

Simply put, respected journalist E.R. Shipp who has been on this program before sent us an email last week telling us she was just back from a fact finding trip and wanted to know if we'd be interested in what she saw. What set it off for me was the pictures. You can see those below.

So the question was, do we pick up a thread that many of us are talking about, or try to open up a conversation that we had been having but has been pushed to the wayside? Haiti is in our hemisphere, and as our other guest, the Rev. Jesse Jackson told us, could easily be a staging area for the drug cartels and even Al Qaeda. It was a provocative argument, and I hope you agree that it was a worthwhile lead.

We're interested in your take either way.

And we most certainly want to know ... what you BELIEVE. Check out our conversation with Jay Allison for information on how you can contribute to this latest iteration of the famous radio series, This I Believe. We want to hear from you. And yes, as Jay told you, it isn't as easy as you might believe to know what you believe or rather, to write it down in 500 words.

But do try.

And because we always try to leave you with hope, here's Regina Belle, sharing her thoughts about her latest CD, which is GOSPEL. You know her from her lovely duet with Peabo Bryson (from Alladin) perhaps now she'll have you tapping your feet in the car.

As for us, we're dealing with heavy rains here in DC. One staff member has a flooded basement, another had a tree fall on her house, another lost power, had to dress to scurry in here by candlelight. But we are thankful that that's the extent of it. Deaths and injuries across the south and Midwest from tornadoes, not to mention the fact that a team from ATC is in Chengdu, about forty miles from the epicenter of an EARTHQUAKE in Sichuan province. They are all okay too.

Our thoughts go to those who are suffering.

Here are a couple of the photos from Haiti -- Rev. Jesse Jackson's photographer Adrian Burrows took these shots during their visit to Haiti.

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Rev. Jesse Jackson meets with Haiti's President Rene Garcia Preval during a recent trip to Haiti.

Adrian S. Burrows/Rainbow PUSH Coalition
 
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Rev. Jesse Jackson tours one of Haiti's slums, Cite Soleil. The food crisis, unemployment and political unrest have destabilized the country.

Adrian S. Burrows/Rainbow PUSH Coalition
 


10:26 - May 12, 2008

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