Haitian showed what makes U.S. great
Late BPD officer was invaluable to city, country
This year was not one of my most pleasant Martin L. King Jr. holidays, but it did give me the opportunity to reflect on one of the best.
I have spent the past week at Massachusetts General Hospital after collapsing at Brae Burn Country Club in Newton following my speech to a group of distinguished medical doctors, lawyers and business executives. The doctors assure me I’ll be home soon.
But as I lay in my hospital bed, watching the news about President Trump’s remarks, it has been an opportune time for me to remember a special Haitian friend.
Just before I began my talk in Newton, one of the doctors there reminded me of a trip we took together to help the victims of the devastating hurricane that struck Haiti in the 1990s.
I was serving as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican then, and in the middle of delivering a presentation on the genocide, a papal aide approached me to tell me that I had an important telephone call from the U.S. secretary of state.
I was told that I should head to Haiti immediately to help the U.S. relief efforts.
I knew that I would need a lot of help, so on my way to the airport, I called a retired Boston police detective and my personal aide at City Hall, Yves Dambreville.
Yves was the plainclothes police officer who kept track of things for me when I was mayor. He was smart and savvy and you wouldn’t know he was in the crowd. He was the first person I thought of to take me around his native country. While in Haiti, I met some pretty remarkable people and for two weeks, we slept in a washed-out hut in Port-au-Prince. The courage of the people was amazing, from the elderly to young people. The challenges that they had to overcome were incredible, but they withstood the heartaches. Some came to cities like Boston and you will see them hard at work, raising wonderful families and contributing to what’s great about America.
My hospital stay has not been fun, but at least I got a chance to think a lot about a great friend and a loyal American who unfortunately is not with us any more — tragically murdered two years ago in Port-au-Prince as he worked to help his native Haiti. I only wish more of us got to know these people who came from different impoverished countries in the world. I know we would all value them.