What terrible irony that our Marines were landing in the Philippines over a Veterans Day weekend.
In World War II, Americans and Filipinos fought as brothers against the Axis powers.
Today they are side by side again, but this time the enemy is Mother Nature — specifically the devastating Typhoon Haiyan.
It’s a big job.
Though the numbers are still murky, a United Nations humanitarian official reckons that 9.8 million people have been affected. More than 660,000 have been displaced from their homes and communities, with 10,000 feared dead.
Here in New York, where many are still recovering from Sandy, we have special reason to identify with Filipinos hit by this storm.
New York is also home to a vibrant Filipino community, many of whom have loved ones they haven’t heard from. Local groups from the Philippine-American Club of Schenectady and the Tanglaw Filipino-American Society of Long Island to The Fil-Am — a magazine for Filipino-Americans in New York — are raising money or directing people where to send it.
Catholic Relief Services and both the American Red Cross and the Philippine Red Cross are also sending relief.
Almost all these groups can be accessed through Facebook, their own Web pages or the news section of the Web site for the Philippine embassy in Washington.
Between the capabilities of the United States Marines, the generosity of the American people and the resilience of the Filipino citizens, we have no doubt the people of the Philippines will pick themselves up and build even better than before. Godspeed to all engaged in this vital work.