Can Nagin Just Say Thanks!

I originally wrote this on Aug 7, 2007. As we approach the second anniversary of Katrina, I know there are many things on people's minds. Thoughts about what they lost, about what they still have, family who are gone and those who remain. One thought I think we all should have is appreciation for people around the country who have helped. Many of them are still helping.

I was reading an article in the Staten Island Advance, a local news paper in Staten Island, New York. The article, printed just the other day, Aug 4, 2007, was titled: "Lending Hands, Hearts to New Orleans". This article shows that people from all over the US are still thinking, and still giving to New Orleans.

The Rev. Dave Watson said: "Last month I had the privilege of leading a team of 15 members of our church family, Calvary Chapel, to participate in rebuilding and ministering efforts in New Orleans. Two years after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina the city is still in ruins. Sadly, it looks as if the hurricane was just last week and the work of rebuilding has just started." He continued: "Over and over as we worked in the shadow of the Superdome, I shook my head in disbelief, mumbling, This! In America?"

It's true, too. Too much of New Orleans hasn't even begun rebuilding yet. Too many places are still without power or other services. I know everyone has their favorite person or persons to blame. Some blame the entire government from local to state to federal. Even so, there are many citizens who came to New Orleans and helped for no other reason than they cared about the people in New Orleans.

A group from a church, I don't remember where now, came to my Mom's house, in Metairie, a couple of months after Katrina. My brother-in-law and nephew had helped her gut the house and rip out the sheetrock. These people, whom she didn't know and had never seen before, saw her and asked what they could do to help. She showed them the trees that were down in the backyard, the destroyed fence, the garbage all over the place.