Todd Shea in Haiti, February 2010. Photo by Pete Sabo.

CDRS/SHINE Humanity fundraiser

Whittier, California, February 27, 2010

Ethan Casey

I flew down from Seattle to be here today, to make the strongest possible appeal to you to give generously to support Todd Shea’s important work.

The six weeks that Todd just spent doing emergency relief in Haiti underscore the importance of his ongoing work in Pakistan. Both – Haiti and Pakistan; emergency relief and long-term humanitarian aid – are important, because the life and dignity of every one of God’s children are important. As a Haitian woman insisted years ago to Dr. Paul Farmer, Tout moun se moun – every person is a person. It’s as simple as that.

Dr. Farmer has walked the walk in Haiti for more than twenty years since the day that woman’s sister died after being refused a transfusion because no one would pay for it, and if there is any justice in this world, he will be awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. I have with me some copies of Dr. Farmer’s extraordinary 2003 Harvard Medical School commencement address, and I’m happy to share these and to tell you more about him and his organization, Partners in Health.

But I’m here to talk to you about Todd Shea, who also is becoming a credible candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. Many people in this room are among Todd’s earliest and strongest supporters. Donating money is important, but 2010 is the year that we also can and should push harder than ever to bring him to the attention of the American public. Not only do Todd and CDRS need moral and financial support from the American public beyond the Pakistani community, but the American public needs to know that there are Americans out there doing the kind of work Todd is doing in places like Pakistan and Haiti.

Todd is not the only American in this room who has worked in Haiti since the earthquake. I want to single out two others: Dr. Farzana Naqvi and Dr. Salman Naqvi. The story of how Farzana, Salman and others have stepped up as physicians, as Muslims, as Pakistanis who know the devastation an earthquake can cause, and not least as Americans, is a powerful message that the American public needs to hear.

I first met Todd when we both spoke to an informal gathering of this community around a swimming pool in Pasadena, where Todd also played “Dil, Dil Pakistan” on his guitar. That was just over a year ago, and just before I left on the six-week overland trip around India and Pakistan that resulted in my book Overtaken By Events: A Pakistan Road Trip.

Pete, Essam and Ethan in Sindh province, Pakistan, April 9, 2009.

In this picture with me, in a village in Sindh province, on the last full day of our exhausting trip, is my friend Pete Sabo, a Seattle-based lab scientist and photographer. Pete just returned from spending ten days with Todd and Farzana in Haiti, and I want to share with you what Pete told me about Todd: “I have to say Todd was always dealing with something, [and he] didn’t require much for himself. Just a shady place to recharge.”

Last July I had the privilege of spending a week with Todd in and around San Francisco. We both spoke and hobnobbed at the APPNA convention, I introduced Todd to some friends of mine in the South Bay, and we drove together to Yosemite National Park, where friends of his from Fresno hold an annual Islamic summer camp.

We drove back to San Francisco through the park, and I have fond memories of the personal concert Todd treated me to as I drove and he played songs by Pink Floyd and Tom Petty in the passenger seat. He says, by the way, that this picture makes him look like a giant chipmunk.

Todd Shea and Ethan Casey at Yosemite National Park after visiting an annual Islamic summer camp organized by the Pakistani community of Fresno, California, July 8, 2009. Photo by some guy using Ethan's cell phone.

On that drive I also took the opportunity to interview Todd, and I want to share with you two things in particular that he said:

I want to be a part of showing Muslims that America is not out to destroy Islam or kill Muslims. I have not seen any evidence that that is what our intentions are. But I think it’s high time we showed Pakistanis the best of America. If you’re a true friend, you don’t run out on somebody when you don’t need them anymore. And if people have an ounce of pride or self-esteem, pretty soon they don’t come around anymore. Pakistanis don’t trust America anymore. We need to show Pakistanis who we really are.

He also said:

I’m one that doesn’t believe in doing things just because they might benefit you now or in the future. I believe in doing things that are good, and then naturally they don’t come back to haunt you. And they automatically come back to you in positive ways. Work for justice, avoid hypocrisy, go out in the world and live the values that you espouse, and I think you’ll be okay. Fail to do those things at your own peril.

Some of the impressive children of the Pakistani-American community - volunteers at a fundraising dinner for Todd Shea's organization CDRS/SHINE Pakistan at the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit, Troy, Michigan, January 23, 2010.

Todd is not only someone who, like Paul Farmer, redefines what it means to do one’s best. He’s also a prophetic voice that needs to be heard in the American and global conversations.

Ten days after the earthquake, I filled in for Todd on several speaking engagements in Michigan. (I want to include a special thank-you here to Fiza and Mansoor Shah, who graciously postponed a gathering they had agreed to host for me that weekend here in Southern California, so that I could go to Michigan on short notice.) The fact that it was because he was in Haiti that Todd couldn’t be in Michigan was in itself a powerful message, which I brought home to the mostly Pakistani audiences there.

This photo shows me with some of the young volunteers at the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit, whose efforts so moved me that I included in my speech this line: “We all know that America is a nation of immigrants. As an American whose ancestors came here in the 19th century from Ireland and Germany and France, I want to thank you for contributing not only your talents and material resources, but also your impressive children to help build a new, improved America in the 21st century.”

Being able to represent Todd and his work in those circumstances was not only a great honor, but enormously helpful to me personally. The earthquake was a shock to all of us, and to as many as 300,000 Haitians it was literally deadly. To me it was – is – profoundly painful, because Haiti is the first place I ever went outside the United States, at age 16 in 1982 with my father.

Ethan Casey in Haiti, March 1982.

The story of how I first went to Haiti, and why I keep going back, is the subject of the new book I’ll be spending the rest of this year writing. The Pakistani-American community’s response to the Haitian earthquake is going to be a significant theme of that book, and this weekend I’ll be doing recorded interviews with Todd, Farzana, Salman, and Laila Karamally, who has been working very closely with Todd from her home in Irvine throughout these six weeks. I invite you to talk to me about how you can follow and support that project.

Serendipitously, I had a week’s worth of pre-scheduled speaking engagements of my own booked in early February at two churches and three colleges in Colorado, including the Air Force Academy. I was supposed to talk about Pakistan, but my parents live in Colorado, my father founded something called the Colorado Haiti Project, and people there know about my longstanding connection to Haiti. I was able to use the story of how and why Todd Shea, a great friend of Pakistan, was in Haiti while I was in Colorado to convey some powerful truths and connections to my mostly white audiences.

I’m eager to continue telling Todd’s story all around America, because there is no better ambassador for Pakistan, for America, and for humanity than Todd Shea. Please support his work.