The tragedy in Haiti is simply mind boggling. The devastation and death is nearly beyond our comprehension.

Of course, as with many situations like this, the idiocy and foolishness displayed by some in regard to them is nearly beyond comprehension as well.

First, I give you Guido Bertolasa, Italy's top disaster official. He described America's response to the situation in Haiti as “pathetic.” I think it might do Bertolasa well to learn a little Haitian history before he judges America's response to Haiti as anything.

In the 1700s, what is now Haiti was called the “Jewel of the Caribbean” and supplied about 40 percent of the world’s sugar.

In 1791, France passed legislation to phase out slavery in its Caribbean colonies and grant the former slaves citizenship. Rather than becoming citizens, Haiti’s black population mass murdered all whites and mulattoes who could not flee the island.

In 1804, only full-blooded “Negros” remained and Haiti became the first “Negro-ruled” nation in the western hemisphere. But, the violence never ended and thousands of Haitians died in the process.

While the North and South in the U.S. largely agreed that slavery should be ended, most Southerners (and a large percentage of Northerners) universally opposed having a large population of freed slaves living in their midst. Why? The Haitian “revolution” was fresh in every mind.

Flash forward to 1915. The “Jewel of the Caribbean” was now a desolate cesspool exporting almost no sugar. The U.S. decided to “take up the white man's burden” and send the Marine Corps to rebuild Haiti's infrastructure and feed its starving population.

The U.S. gave huge amounts of money to Haiti and oversaw the building of 1,000 miles of road and telephone lines, modernized its port and helped Haiti to start exporting sugar again. The U.S. also put an end to the thousands of bandits along Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic. The U.S. left in 1934 at the request of a then stabilized, yet very ungrateful Haitian government.

Haiti immediately sank right back into total desolation and strife. In 1973, the U.S. again began playing a huge role in Haiti, giving it huge sums of money in handouts each subsequent year.

In 1994, the Clinton administration sent the U.S. military to Haiti to rebuild its infrastructure. In 1995, the Peace Corps went to Haiti in large numbers try to train Haitians in job skills. Totaled, the U.S. government spent almost $1 billion providing food and job training to the Haitians — just between 1995 and 1999.

That doesn't include hundreds of millions of our money that was spent by the United Nations during the same span, which, according to reports from those on the ground now, was mostly wasted and abused.

Italy's criticism is a mere micro chasm of the general disrespect shown to the U.S. by Europe and the U.N. in regard to Haiti. In fact, several European countries have flat said the U.S. presence there is “for show” or is “generally ineffective.”

I propose we put Bertolasa in charge of the effort since, obviously, he would be able to address it better than we have while informing his Euro buds that the situation is entirely theirs to take care of. If they ask why, just tell them it seems America has already more than done its fair share there.

Oh, and about Italy — until the earthquake, it's contribution to Haiti was non-existent.

Then you turn around and have Pat Robertson, the televangelist, who said the tragedy was God's punishment for Haitian's making a “pact with the devil” hundreds of years ago. Of course, ignoring the craziness of such a statement, or the fact that Robertson also once said that the Katrina disaster was brought on by America's abortion policies or that 9/11 was the cause of feminists and gays, the media jumped all over his latest rant.

In fact, according to the National Media Studies group, coverage of Robertson by the major networks overwhelmed any and all positive coverage of any other Christian-related Haiti stories by a whopping 150-to-1 ratio.

Once again, all the good that is being done by churches in very tough economic times is basically totally ignored and replaced by words of one man. Decades of missions work by thousands of good American Christians — including many from Thomasville — overshadowed by one sad view that the media chooses to spotlight because of its extremism.

Why? Craziness — and stupidity — sells.

And of course, more and more people are turned off to the church in the process — all because of the loose-lipped lunacy of one man who is supposed to be in the business of securing salvation for those souls.

Even though I won't go as far to say which of these is more wrong than the other, I will say that either once again proves that idiots and fools will always make their presence known, and normally in the worst way possible. And while I would hope that Bertolasa is no more representative of all Italians' views than Robertson's are of Christians, it sure is no less discouraging to hear their voices amplified so loud above the rest.