Monday, September 05, 2005

Some of the good stuff...

Some of the good stories from the Gulf Coast:

The three black men who ferried people from the housing project where they were trapped using a large air mattress. They eventually found an abandoned boat which they used, but it had no engine so they had to pull it and paddle with brooms. They ferried perhaps as many as 100 people to safety.

Despite the fact that nearly one third of the New Orleans Police Dept. simply took off and haven't returned, the other 1,000 or so police men stayed. They all likely have similar stories, but the one that struck me was a man who knew his home was gone and he didn't know where his brother was, but he was there to help protect the people trapped in the city. His reason for staying...it was simply that he took an oath to protect the people of New Orleans and he wasn't willing to leave people to fend for themselves.

The Coast Guard members who refused to take breaks from trying to rescue people by helicopter. They worked nearly non-stop to try and save people.

The Red Cross members who are down in the shelters doing what they can to alleviate the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of people with nowhere to go.

The Game Wardens ferrying people to safety on swamp boats. Going from house to house.

2 comments:

Laura said...

I also heard a story about a homeless man someplace who donated $1 to the Red Cross. I don't know if it's true, but I hope it is.

Why does it take a tragedy to bring out humanity in people? Sure there are some people who are good citizens on a daily basis, but not as many as there should be.

The Zombieslayer said...

Shawn - Good post. I keep hearing stories about the worst people and too rarely hear stories of the good people are doing. Thanks.

By the way, I'm willing to bet there are more of these good stories than bad ones.