Heartfelt Compassion & Hospitality is Universal and....

......cannot be confined to One Religion, One Sexual Orientation, One Race, One Sex, One Country or Nationality, One Political Party or One Economic or Social Class. It is what it is !
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hospitality in action...

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Guest Columnist

Chuck Mazziotti: "Community should be proud of reaction to hurricane"
September 24, 2005

Much has been said regarding the lack of coordination in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. FEMA, Louisiana and the Orleans Parish governments continue to receive negative marks. The "blame game" likely will continue for months and years to come as people debate why the government could not manage the greatest disaster, or should I say the greatest natural "catastrophe," to strike America.
Although the national media focuses on the negatives, it must be noted that from the very beginning the Caddo-Bossier community has come together to meet the challenges locally. Our citizenry has stepped forward in a thousand ways to meet the needs of our fellow man and help the many evacuees in northwest Louisiana. This must not be overlooked.
This tragedy has been met financially through local donations and assistance programs and also through a coordinated response by the governing bodies within Caddo and Bossier parishes.
Undeniably, there have been some negatives -- some frustrations and some misinformation. But the public may not realize our city and parish leaders have met daily to handle a number of issues, such as sending personnel to south Louisiana; assisting shelter and support operations throughout the Ark-La-Tex; and organizing the details involved in recovery efforts at all levels of government.
Congressman Jim McCrery and his staff, particularly District Representative Richard Wright, have been instrumental in getting vital information to help those affected by this disaster.
Until last week, the Caddo and Bossier Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) operated around the clock, serving as the focal point to bring together assistance from all levels of government.
The EOCs are state-of-the-art, Web-based "command post" operations that centralize communications and information. Workers handled several thousand requests from all across the nation -- addressing everything from shelters and donations to victims trapped on rooftops and missing persons.
With the arrival of Katrina, Sam Giordano, Vince Marsala and Tom Williams readied and opened Hirsch Coliseum, LSUS and the CenturyTel Center. With just a few hours' notice, they pulled together to provide days and weeks of housing for thousands. Hundreds of volunteers assisted in that effort, working with the Red Cross in these first-class shelters.
Reid Brau and the Northwest Louisiana Chapter of the American Red Cross are another major positive. The agency always is there to help meet immediate needs.
Major Steve Long and the Salvation Army have done an awesome job operating the distribution center in the old Sam's Club for evacuees to get food, clothing and household goods. Summer Grove Baptist Church also stepped up to the plate by organizing a distribution center at the church. Together, these two groups have assisted thousands of people.
Local agencies have worked tirelessly, dispatching fire and rescue workers, equipment and supplies to the Orleans metro area; providing police and National Guard security at the shelters; and in housing more than 700 incarcerated evacuees in Caddo and Bossier jails.
Victims with medical needs got help, thanks to quick response from health, medical and pharmaceutical professionals. Several C-130's and medical helicopters transported many sick and injured to Shreveport hospitals. A special needs shelter, coordinated by the Department of Social Services, was readied and available at the Bossier Civic Center.
Educators, business leaders, churches and individual citizens also came to the rescue. Public and private schools accepted more than 2,000 students. Businesses and industries donated money, food, clothes, cots and more. Churches converted to shelters and volunteered for hours. City leaders and citizens opened their doors for our Southern guests to become northwest Louisiana residents.
Why have the positives dominated and prevailed here? It's the people! Volunteerism is at the heart of this community! It might be a cliché, but good can come out of everything. And that good is being spread every day by the positive actions of our area residents and our community leaders.
Chuck Mazziotti is director of the Caddo-Bossier Office of Emergency Preparedness.

source: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050924/OPINION0106/509240313/1058/OPINION03
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Gregory Hudson
GREGORY HUDSON: "Compassion in time of tragedy heartwarming"
September 25, 2005
"»Who is my neighbor?"
The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 10

As I write this column Hurricane Rita is bearing down on Texas. We have yet to fully understand or recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and here comes more destruction. I hope it's nothing like we've seen in the last few weeks. There are, however, some positive stories to come from the recent disaster.
A few days ago I saw something that I found somewhat heartwarming. As I was driving down the street in my neighborhood I saw that two little boys had put up a tent and opened a lemonade stand. While one boy sat in the chair under a tent, the other little boy stood by the street with a sign that said "Lemonade for Sale to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina." I immediately stopped my car and gave the boys a few dollars for their effort. I told them that I didn't need the lemonade, but I was so proud of them for what they were doing and that I just wanted to support what they were doing.
I told them they were being young "humanitarians" and "philanthropists." They probably didn't know what I meant because they only looked to be between 6 and 9 years old. But they were quite gracious in their thanks.
When I got back in my car I began to think about those little boys. Here were these two little boys living in all the comforts of middle-classness. Little boys who I could tell had everything they wanted and needed. Two little boys who I could tell were probably lacking for nothing, but something made them decide to make an effort to try and help those who didn't have and those who had lost everything.
All I could say was this is the kind of expression of compassion that I have been taught that God loves. These two boys in just opening a lemonade stand had captured the spirit of what it meant to be a good neighbor. Although they lived hundreds miles away from the devastation, they understood who their neighbor was. I assume somebody taught them compassion and how to show concern for not only those who look like them and think like them. Perhaps no one told these kids that "those people" got what they deserved. Maybe they hadn't learned that it wasn't their responsibility to lend a helping hand.
Those two little boys probably didn't know anyone in New Orleans, Mississippi or Alabama. They probably weren't even sure where these places were, but something moved them to want to help.
During the tragic events of the hurricane, I have seen some of the worst in mankind. We've seen racism. We've seen how no one really wants to take responsibility. We've seen partisanship as usual. We've even seen how many people who otherwise boast of their Christian faith look the other way and continue to ignore the suffering of the poor. But in spite of all that, we have also seen some compassion. That's what I saw in those two little boys the other day.
Now it really shouldn't take a tragedy or a catastrophe to cause people to show compassion, but tragedy can teach us a lesson. Those two little boys taught me one.
Gregory Hudson is a local minister. Write him in care of The Times, P.O. Box 30222, Shreveport, LA 71130-0222. E-mail to shreveportopinion@gannett.com.
source: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050925/OPINION0103/509240301/1058/OPINION03
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Wednesday September 28, 2005
News

Hurricane evacuee finds new friends, home in Brownwood
By Steve Nash -- Brownwood Bulletin

It would be hard to say who was most excited Tuesday afternoon at a Brownwood Retirement Village apartment.
Was it the group of 20 or so folks who gathered for a suprise "welcome to your new home" party, or was it Patricia McField, who was chased out of her New Orleans home in a boat by Hurricane Katrina and followed a circuitous evacuation path that brought her unexpected friends in Brownwood?
"Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus ... Oh, is my heart still there?" McField, a 59-year-old widow, exclaimed she as surveyed the one-bedroom apartment, which had just become her new home. It was filled with furniture and other household items, thanks to donations from businesses and individuals.
McField moved from person to person throughout the balloon-festooned apartment, exchanging hugs with her new neighbors and members of a Sunday school class at Rocky Creek Baptist Church who helped set her up in the apartment.
"Isn't this so nice and sweet ... Thank you, darlin,' thank you ... Oh! I have a TV!" McField said.
After Katrina hit, McField left her flooded home near the French Quarter, where she lived alone, and was taken by boat to the Franklin Avenue Bridge, where she stayed with other hurricane victims for three days and nights.
They lived outdoors, and covered themselves with sheets when they needed to relieve themselves.
She was taken by truck to the Convention Center, where she stayed another three days and nights. She traveled by bus to Houston, where she was sheltered in the Reliant Center.
In Brownwood, meanwhile, Steve and Jeannie Pruett agreed that they would take evacuees into their home, as they had extra space.
"We have extra room and a love for the Lord, and faith in him and trust in him that he will take care of the details," Jeannie Pruett said.
Pruett and her mother-in-law, Dovie Francis of Austin, drove to the Houston area to help in a church, which her husband's relatives attended, which was working with evacuees. The church had enough volunteers, so Pruett and her mother-in-law volunteered at the Reliant Center.
"I looked out and I saw Pat, and I was drawn to her, and we became instant friends," Pruett said of her first meeting with McField. "She was just sitting there by herself, looking around. There was no one else around. I thought she seemed lonely and needed somebody to talk to her."
McField, who had an open Bible next to her, had been sleeping on a child-sized cot. Pruett managed to get her a larger one.
On a Tuesday, Pruett and her mother-in-law took McField out to lunch at an Olive Garden restaurant. On Wednesday, they took her shopping. On Thursday, Pruett work up at 4 a.m., knowing what she was supposed to do: invite McField home with her.
McField accepted her invitation, and Pruett brought her to Brownwood, where she temporarily moved in with the Pruetts, just under two weeks ago. Help from individuals and organizations poured in, including the Brownwood Lions Club and optometrist Stephen Hlis, who got her an eye exam and new glasses.
McField started working at Brownwood Manufacturing on Monday, and the American Red Cross and city officials arranged for the finances to get McField moved into the Brownwood Retirement Village.
"She has been a blessing to us," Pruett said. "... This woman has not asked for anything. We're lifetime friends, there's no doubt about it. She's an amazing lady. She sees God at work in all that has taken place with the hurricane."
The Pruetts gave McField one of their extra beds - and that, McField said, was all she would need.
When Pruett picked McField up at work Tuesday afternoon and drove her to her apartment, McField didn't know what was waiting for her.
Rodney Roby of Texas Furniture had given her living room furniture, with more furniture being given by other sources. Neighbors and members of Rocky Creek Baptist Church, where the Pruetts attend, gathered for her surprise party and carted in gifts.
"I had no idea ..." McField said more than once after arriving at her new apartment.
"Oh, it is fantastic," McField said of her welcome. "It's really a blessing. It's a God-sent thing. I'm so amazed."
McField said while she doesn't know her future, it seems likely Brownwood will be home for awhile. She said when she was stuck on the Franklin Avenue Bridge in New Orleans, she couldn't have imagined the welcome she would find in Brownwood a few weeks later.
"I sure prayed to God that I would be anywhere then," she said.
source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2005/09/28/news/news02.txt
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Editorials
TIME TO BETTER PLAN FOR NEXT HURRICANE
Editorial
09/26/2005
A sense of relief and thanksgiving seemed to prevail a couple of days after the latest monster hurricane slammed into the Texas-Louisiana coast early Saturday, leaving a trail of property destruction but claiming few lives.
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Hurricane Rita acted like she knew that she wasn't really welcome, and rushed through the coastal area and along the Louisiana-Texas border at a much faster pace than anticipated.
Tyler, which early forecasts said could be buffeted by high winds for three days and heavy rains of up to 20 or more inches, got a relatively brief fling from strong winds Saturday and only a fraction of the amount of rainfall anticipated.
But most residents agreed that was enough. Trees, signs and unsecured objects were tossed around in the high winds, and several events were cancelled, as conditions during most of the Saturday hours were dangerous. Many areas of the city were without electricity for some of that period and the restoration of service continued Monday in some places and other east Texas cities.
By late Saturday, however, the high winds had departed from the Tyler area and the city quickly started returning to normal.
The East Texas State Fair, which was forced to close Saturday, opened its gates again Sunday and was back in full swing Monday with one of its biggest special days - Senior Citizens Day.
Things now look great, weatherwise, for the rest of the 2005 run which is scheduled to go through Saturday.
Other parts of deep East Texas and eastern parts of Louisiana were not as fortunate as the storm did far more damage and caused flooding conditions. But an unprecedented evacuation effort that cleared most of the coastal areas threatened by the storm is credited with saving countless lives.
That indicates the lessons from Hurricane Katrina, from which the fatalities are still being counted and might reach 1,000, were well learned. The biggest tragedy in lives lost involved the evacuation effort itself when a bus carrying a group of ailing elderly people caught fire on a crowded highway near Dallas, with 23 reported dead.
Some of the worst stories of human misery caused by Hurricane Rita involved the evacuation from Houston where a flood of vehicles trying to get out of harm's way caused big traffic pileups as traffic moved at a snail's pace, if at all. A shortage of gasoline at many stations caused additional problems as many motorists ran out of fuel. People reported being in their car for more than 20 hours, mostly getting nowhere fast.
But somehow most of them managed to get through it all. Reports from Houston and other areas in that vicinity Monday indicated that the "de-evacuation" of people flooding back to their homes was not experiencing as many problems and seemed to be flowing rather well.
One concern is that people who ran into road problems getting out might not be as easy to persuade to leave next time, especially since the worst of the hurricane missed their city. That could prove to be a dangerous, and even deadly, mistake should there be another storm that doesn't waver from its anticipated path.
That makes it important for officials to do some study and planning so they will be able to better assure residents that getting out will go more smoothly in the event of a "next time."
People who fled from the areas where the hurricane hit hardest might have lost homes and property, but they realize that the act of evacuating likely saved their lives so that they will be able to go about the task of restoring their lifestyle. And they are finding that millions of their fellow citizens have opened their hearts and pocketbooks to help them meet the challenge.
Many of those who have contributed to aid the victims of Katrina no doubt will now dig a little deeper to help the latest hurricane victims.
Natural disasters occur on their own schedule, and no way has been found to control or influence them, but people and nations through planning can mitigate the impact. This is especially true of hurricanes since there usually is a warning period before their arrival.
The positive news from Hurricane Rita is that lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina helped keep the latest storm from being as tragic.
Most Americans no doubt join in the hope and prayer that there will be plenty of time to review the experiences from both recent hurricanes and craft an even more highly effective disaster response plan before it might be needed again.
©Tyler Morning Telegraph 2005
source: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15281642&BRD=1994&PAG=461&dept_id=374751&rfi=6
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