Behind Bars January 12, 2010, a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake hits the small Caribbean nation of Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving tens of thousands in desperate need of medical care. Due to inadequate infrastructure, Haiti's population has died and, in some families, children have been orphaned. Once the attention of other countries, such as the United States, came to the attention, adoptions and child trafficking began to occur even though some of these children still had parents. In one such case, ten Americans from the Eastside Baptist Church organized a rescue mission to Haiti after the earthquake. These 10 Americans took 33 children from Port-Au-Prince and took them to the Dominican-Haitian border on a bus, but they did not have proper documents with them, so they were turned away. This group's plan was to take these 33 children to a rented beach hotel in the Dominican Republic for shelter. The Americans were later jailed on charges of trafficking Haitian children to the Dominican Republic. Once sent to prison, they would be tried in a Haitian court, although most Haitian courts were paralyzed by the earthquake. The group's spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, said they were "just trying to do the right thing," which is probably what their intentions actually were. Some of the 33 children, aged between 2 months and 12 years, said they still had their parents, and the prime minister said some of those parents may have given their children to the Americans in the hope they would reach the United States. .In a sense, these Americans demonstrated moral courage because they saw that after the earthquake, the people of Haiti had nothing left, and so to try to bring these children to the Dominican Republic, they would be... in the middle of paper ......world. Standing up, even if it means having to do it alone when everyone else is holding back, could show people that there is a different side to life. I feel like being on the other side is something bigger than yourself because there's a chain reaction that happens. People will start doing what feels right within them, instead of being that average, everyday person, and they will dare to be different. I try to do the exact same thing every day and make a difference, even if it means doing a small task, because I know that a small act of kindness could start a chain and lead to something big. The ten Americans tried to perform an act of kindness that would inspire other people to do the same thing, and if everyone followed such an example, the world would be a better place. Bibliography February 2010 http://www.msnbc. com/id/35181444/ns//world_news-haiti_earthquake/