Does it Make Sense to Have a Wine Tasting to Raise Money for Haiti?

It almost sounds vulgar. Imagine, a fundraising wine tasting at Chambers Street Wines on Saturday at 4 pm to raise money for Haiti and Partners in Health. Will we be discussing bouquet, length, finish, natural vs. industrial wine while Haiti suffers?

No one individual knows how to make a difference, how to help. Yes, the governments of the world need to rebuild an infrastructure that was barely there in the first place. We cannot have the same inaction that we had during Katrina and watch people die of neglect on our television screens. If we can send film crews to televise misery then we can send medical support, food and water. And we can do this on a massive basis.

But government help, as important as it is, will only be sustaining if we organize on a daily basis. Haiti is going to need major structural changes and it is not going to happen overnight. The economy was a disaster before the earthquake and was quickly disintegrating. It was a quiet disintegration and we could block it out and just forget it was happening. There is so much suffering around the world that one feels numb – much easier to move on and go about our daily lives.

We hope to do something small, to step out of our numbness by integrating work for Haiti relief into our everyday life. I don't want to just send a check or attend a charity ball. Charity is always viewed as something outside ourselves, something we do for an outside organization. Charity is often self-aggrandizing and more about networking and personal prestige than the actual charitable goals.

In my everyday life, I am a wine importer. This tasting is my small attempt to do some good, to touch a few people in Haiti not only by sending that check, but also by changing my everyday life. I want to use my skills to help people who have nothing to do with wine and my daily world.

I was touring viticultural France in 1989 when the Romanian dictatorship fell. There were always strong historic ties between the two countries but it was truly amazing to see that every church, every school, every city hall, everyone and every institution was trying to do something to aid the Romanian people. It was a nationwide mobilization that seemed natural and which touched la vie quotidienne

I hope you'll join me in supporting Partners in Health and the Haitians.

- Joe Dressner 1-14-2010 11:52pm

I think that instead of discussing, or even really thinking about the wines Saturday, the thing that will be felt is the power of coming together in support of our simple humanity, to break through the sense of powerlessness in the face of such a tragedy. To be able to balance the feeling of defeat with the knowledge that it matters to do what we can, to not abandon that part of ourselves that we feel in the suffering of others. In a way, it's all we have.

posted by Steve Edmunds 1-15-2010 1:08am

help is not a 4 letter word

i don't think one can do too much and i don't think there's a wrong way to help. whatever gets people to do more, be proactive, participate in a community action (and tasting wine fits that bill!) can't be a bad idea. go you. and all the other wine peeps.

i follow PIH on twitter and their new stand with haiti site. great org. and of course an easy way to do something is through wyclef jean's yele org - where you can text 501501 and contribute 5$ immediately.

you honor your roots! the vine kind and the power to the people kind.

mm

posted by mona moore 1-15-2010 1:09am

Summoning both Carlin and Jesus, it would be interesting to note your sentence on Charity.
George Carlin correctly noted the decline of civility where corporate needs debase the language with wrong usage as well as childish euphemisms. In the name of commerce, "giving back" at fundraisers has often been incorrectly labeled Charity...it is not, it is simply fundrasing. If the target is met, and the funds received, then perhaps overall the act is helpful, but still, not Charity.....
Charity helps both the donor AND the recipient. Charity is a poor Latin translation of the Greek Agape, which cannot be properly translated into English. It is the "Love" Jesus refers to, it is the "Love" St. Paul says is the most important thing. It is a selfless caring for ones brother, where "the right hand does not know what the left is doing"
In short, Charity, or 'Love' is the opposite of Greed and Desire....thus those who can practice it are helped every bit as much as much as those who benefit from those who have attained selflessness....

All that said, continue with your good works...and any time you hear someone at a 'charity' ball claiming they are part of a "Charity" remember...they are fund raising, which may be good, perhaps a sign of friendship, a step in the right direction....but true Charity, or selflessness, needs no notoriety, nor event, it just is.

posted by ITR 1-15-2010 9:35am

bless you for doing this

my company sent some money

posted by real wino 1-16-2010 8:29am

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Joe Dressner - Captain Tumor Man!

Hi, I'm Joe Dressner the famous wine importer and I have brain cancer!

I already have a wine blog and frankly wine is such a luxury business that I hate to mix my cancer problems with my wine observations. I think it would be a general downer for the lifestyle crowd out there.

Furthermore, we in the wine trade always claim there are tremendous health benefits to drinking wine. I've already had cardiovascular bypass surgery over eight years ago and now I got a tumor aggressively rattling in my brain. My colleagues in the glamorous wine industry want me to keep it quiet.

So, I've started this wonderful new blog to discuss wine, brain tumors, my life and to give you hot tips on handling the cancer stricken around you. There will also be practical wine/radiation pairings when I start radiation therapy and chemotherapy next week.

Having brain cancer means I might both physically and intellectually decline. So, I will be using this blog as a venue to pursue petty vendettas against relatives, acquaintances and people in the wine trade.

I might also lose touch with reality and say things that are not true or are only half true. The important thing is to have fun and enjoy this rare and precious time in my life.

One of my pet vendettas is my cousin Dr. Barbara Hirsch. Dr. Barbara Hirsch is a very important Great Neck Endocrinologist, who was raised and nurtured by my parents. Dr. Hirsch waited until my father was near death and my mother was suffering from a rare neuromuscular disorder, to write them a seven page letter denouncing them for being horrible to her for the entirety of her life! Despite my concerns, Dr. Hirsch still refuses to apologize.

Last night, I drank a beautiful bottle of Bourgueil Clos Sénéchal 2005 from Pierre Breton. It was sublime and reminded me that I used to be healthy. Not only that, the vineyard used to be there before I existed. It exists independently of my having cancer and will continue to exist. You ought to buy some.

August 2009 Postscript: Not only does it exist independently of my cancer, it also exists independently of Louis/Dressner Selections. After 18 years, they have dumped us for Kermit Lynch. Oh well. At least I'm alive!

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