Exactly eight years ago on a Friday, Skal Labissiere was a 13-year-old kid washing his hands before dinner when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake leveled his family’s apartment building in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Skal, his 9-year-old brother, and his mother were trapped under debris for three hours until Labissiere’s father and rescuers found them and pried them out using a barbell.
We wish on the same stars
Forgive me if you know this story.
Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
More than 150,000 of Skal’s neighbors died that day.
Skal, a budding basketball prospect, was able to move to the United States shortly after the disaster. Over time, tens of thousands more Haitians came to these shores, looking for opportunity and adding to the wonderful fabric of this nation. Americans and citizens across the world raised money to help Haitians rebuild their country, one ravaged by colonialism, dictatorship, poverty, and foreign political interference even before the earthquake. That work continues. Mutual aid, unconditional love, and compassion were abundant, and remain so.
While many Haitians left the island in the past eight years, even more stayed. Those Haitians fight every day to build a better future for their children and neighbors. Despite centuries of pillaging by more powerful states and devious men, despite misfortune brought by natural disasters, Haitians fight to improve their home every day.
We all wish on the same stars, in Port-au-Prince, in Flatbush, in Topeka, in Cairo. We all want something and like the same things: happiness, safety, and opportunity for ourselves and our families.
Skal came to America chasing a dream of making the NBA. We welcomed him. He’s made our country better. Skal’s countrymen came to America fleeing the Duvalier regime in the ‘80s and fleeing the wreckage of the earthquake in the 2010s. We welcomed them. The overwhelming majority of them make our country better.
Don’t forget this.
Scores Galore ...
BOS 114, PHI 103
CLE 99, TOR 133
LAC 121, SAC 115
SAS 81, LAL 93
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