Not sure I've ever been so happy it is Friday. This has been the longest week known to man, and I shouldn't be complaining. This won't get to Harry Reid today, sorry. It will also be somewhat short, I think.

I'll start with the most positive words I've heard come out of Haiti this week, from Bill Clinton in Time:

"Before this disaster, Haiti had the best chance in my lifetime to fulfill its potential as a country, to basically escape the chains of the past 200 years. I still believe that if we rally around them now and support them in the right way, the Haitian people can reclaim their destiny.

In case you were wondering, Clinton would know. As part of the Clinton Global Initiative, the former president has spent extensive time in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Clinton gave a speech to LCV where he talked about newer forms of energy that could be produced in Haiti and power 500,000 homes for considerably cheaper. This is a place where many people don't even have power.

Especially after this week. There was a graphic in the Washington Post today, which said that this week, Haiti is the 'epicenter' of the world media coverage. After several disastrous aftershocks, it will be ignored.

I read that right before I saw this picture, the front page of the Washington Express (the free daily of WaPo):
The estimates are between 40-50,000 dead.

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There are two other stories, both domestic, that I'd like to call your attention to this morning. Not sure if I'd linked to it at all, but you may have heard about the Washington Wizard's Gilbert Arenas, once an absolute superstar in the NBA, with a $111 million contract.

Yesterday, he was charged with felony gun possession. But this wasn't for carrying a gun in his car and doing something stupid with his friends. He put guns into the locker of a teammate, at the Verizon Center (about 3 blocks from my office), as a "joking" threat for an unpaid, five-figure bet. I'll repeat, Arenas has a $111 million contract.

He broke more Washington, D.C. laws than you can count, in one of the nation's murder capitals, all as a "joke".

You'll imagine how sick I was when Michael Wilbon, a man who I admire and respect, wrote that we are taking this too seriously. When you are black, you play sports, you are a role model, you live in Washington, D.C., you don't play with guns. Period. If you're human and you live in Washington, D.C., you don't carry guns, period. We aren't taking this too seriously if he is facing five years in prison.

This can't be taken too seriously. At all. Guns are not toys. They aren't for jokes. They are to "jokingly" intimidate a teammate. Not when players themselves are the victims of gun violence. Not when guns are the prevalent object in the black community and you are a beloved leader of that community in one of the cities where it needs you the most.

Late owner Abe Pollin changed the name of the Wizards in the early '90's, you Sonics fans might remember they used to be called the "Bullets", for the simply reason that a town riddled in bullets did not a team that endorsed that. Someone pointed out to me the other day that the team moved to DC from Baltimore. I read the Baltimore Sun everyday. I've said before that the front page is like a damage report from the night before.

And this guy thinks it's okay for him to play with guns. Cheat on your wife, that's you and your family's problem. Cheat in the game, that's the game's problem. Speed and get a ticket. Play with guns and you endorse the one thing bringing the black community down on itself.

As evidence, I transition into a story that is starting to gain traction in Philadelphia. It was reported more than a year ago now that Marvin Harrison, forever know as one of the greatest - and most well-respected - receivers ever, was part of a shooting in the neighborhood where he grew up. You've probably heard that witnesses in these kinds of cases generally don't say anything. Some in Seattle may recall the shooting outside Garfield high school last year, in a game I was at, that hasn't been solved because no one will say anything. Instead they "take care of it", and the violence continues.

Well, Harrison's day may be coming, courtesy of a report in GQ, one of the most damning stories I've ever read about a situation like this. The story makes it seem as if Harrison was the only shooter and witnesses exist. Harrison is also a millionaire.

Guns don't take bank accounts into account.

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On more quick thing: Today is the anniversary of the flight that landed in the Hudson river. Does not seem like a year, but it has been. Some incredible skill and some luck saved 155 people that day and today many will ride a boat out to the scene and toast.

The interesting parts of this are obviously the stories of lives after the fact, all of which are different, but all of which are have one thing in common: not one single person on board that flight has sued U.S. Airways. That, is a shock.