Stopped for a Coke.

“I had started at 6ish in the morning following a church relief effort that had packed up some 72,000 boxes that contained food for a family of four for a week. That's alot of beans by any stretch of the imagination being packaged by some 100 volunteers. I was surprised to watch the elderly -those in their sixties and seventies reaching out some eight hundred miles away to offer help and to let the good people down on the Gulf coast know that we care. Underway for the first leg of this memorible week to come I felt trepidation as I drove closer to the state line between Mississippi and Alabama. I was hearing first hand accounts fo the dire situation and lack of the basic needs on the CB radio. I also was tuned in to the local FM radio stations as well. Nevermind NPR- I needed the current fluid take on who,what, when and where if I wanted to make this trip work. It was as if someone had tripped a switch when crossing into Mississippi. It was a dark town without power or fuel when I left the Church group at the convention center in Jackson. I found out there were already several hundred people at the center and more on the way. What few busses arriving were non commercial,church busses from every small town in La. and Miss. . People really do band together during tough times. After a quick SAT Shot I headed out following no one heading due south on a rather bleak and dark interstate. I did not see any towns but instead would come up on off ramps that were being overrun with people and vehicles out of gas and in desperate need of help. These were the fortunate ones I would later think back and say to myself. I drew closer to the state line when I pulled over into a small gas station to use my Sat phone to check in with my station. No cell ,no power ,no food ,no water, and no fuel for all these people. Man , Ive seen alot in my time but never in my own backyard. A wee bit unsettleing for sure. My instincts took over as I tried to leave the store and was simply confronted by a small mob of people wanting anything I had or owned. I stood back to back with a young deputy in that doorway in the early morning darkness thinking to myself about my grandchildren and how much I needed to weed my flower beds and I almost turned down this assignment. I recalled the mounting frustration Day 2 when first reports of such human tragedy going down in the Big Easy and quietly seeking out my God in prayer asking what it was that He wanted me to do. Yeah me a non-church going person ,safe and well tucked inside my own little world at home just going about my own daily grind asking the eternal questions what am I here for and what am I suppse to be doing? ... It was with a calm and deeply southern voice that came out of this lawman that brought time to a stop. He spoke of such conviction and love for his fellow man. He simply said for all of you'uns to stop..don't panic..we will all get through this.. help each other and be nice to each other .. that help IS on the way and to not give up . How about a hymn ??anybody?? Sure enough He brought calm and hope to those there and had them singing God's work is not done when I was driving away into the night going deeper into the mire of human misery. Amen...

Hope. For tomorrow will surely come...”

“Wow!”

“The road was almost deserted now with no signs of life what so ever and little if any traffic in either direction. I held a steady sixty miles an hour down I-55 after being held at the first checkpoint while my clearences were double checked for the better part of an hour. A mixture of fear and regret was the undertone that came unspokenly thru this meeting of Law Enforcement and the general public, me "the media" included. Now a little more than fifty miles from the I-10/I-55 junction I am dodgeing stalled vehicles and the approaching dawn has cause for bleary eyes to question what Iam seeing. It's a woman standing in the middle of the far side of the median that stops me cold . I roll my window down a bit as I watch her set her young daughter down on the pavement and starts crying for help. I leave her with my poncho ( I hear more rain is coming) and three bottles of water after calling the Authorities and making sure the Guard is patrolling for people like her that have become stranded out on the highway. I gather myself and my emotions leaving her to only God knows what will come and continue on...

I have an escort at the I-10 junction waiting..hired guns for my truck..the show must go on as we say in the biz..

It was difficult to not just stop doing my job and start carrying out the vast majority of elderly that have no one to help them but I watched as desperate boys and men came thru time after time for their fellow mankind and took charge of very bad and dangerous situations to make a differrence in the outcome of so many others. I understand self preservation. I have been there before, myself, in foreign countries on any given day years ago fighting for each and every breath ..yet this was the good ole USA and this is 2005. WTF???? How could we let this happen??? Where the F### is the Guard??? Where is the Federal Government??? What Leadership??? It became very appearent to me that my own survival was at stake here and now as well. I gave water to three women and several children only to be confronted minutes later by a punk with a gun that did not value his life too much... I was told by several NO police to get out now as darkness fell and they could not protect anyone anymore.. anymore?? what a thought ..people became in humane towards each other yet others grouped together for protection. I drove back after several attempts to take my truck away at gunpoint. Every person has a story to tell. I thought about the highway and finding the woman with her daughter. Hope they were alright. As the dawn approached I took a nap at a Guard stageing center for almost seventy three minutes... not bad for being where I was. More commo shots for the station and others as well. Total chaos and never a complaint from the emergency workers trying so desperately to organize and provide for such a huge emergency that was not totally understood by the general public. The flooding was indeed the cripple that caused the most urgent reaction. The scum in the sector of humanity that went beserk and fought like a pack of rabid dogs with each other did little to help those in need. I was ordered to return to Jackson but instead I held a childs hand for the better part of the morning until he stopped shaking and crying. My shirt was in tatters from so many people clutching me as I tried to make my way back to the containment area. I found out later he lost both parents (drowned) and he was being looked after by a church choir. I started the return leg somewhat in a dazed and tormented state of mind...so many people... I got across the I-10 junction when I realized that I was seeing long convoys of relief trucks snaking their way down to the devestaion and despair once so proudly called The Big Easy. I stopped several times on the way back to give words of encouragement to others and to offer what little water and food I still had stashed on the truck. I was no longer worried for myself and found little thirst nor hunger after seeing and being with those in NO... Returning to Jackson was difficult and guilt played with my emotions for the rest of that day and the next. Coming up out of Mississippi I found two couples with a bunch of children that were broke down and without resources to continue to Memphis. I will tell my wife in the morning that I maxed my Visa to get their car towed,fixed and have a room for two nights w/meals at Cracker Barrel for them ... I have stil a home to return to .. I have soft water to bathe in..I have the comfort and love of my family to hold my hand tonight as I finish writting this down.....
last edited: 9/04/05 8:21:23 PM”

“I don't know what to say but I had to post something...”

“Me, either, and me, too.”

“Gosh thank you for sharing such an intimate experience.”

“Ive been a lurker on Trailtalk and "the other site" for a long time. Too long maybe. But this is the best thread I've ever seen on either site. Maybe the net in general. I, for one, am proud of you and it makes me feel better to know there are people like you out there.”

“Outstanding...thank you.”

“wow is a whisper
your feelings of guilt at leaving are understood, but I am grateful you WENT and did what you did, especially because I wanted to and could not. Your gift eases our burden. Thank you. Thanks especially for sharing this personal journey.”

“Your words brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you, quietone.”

“Good job quietone.....one of the few that actually went down to N.O to help.”

“Amazing!”

“They are coming up here now by bus and by cars brought here by the common folk as well as the private disaster orginizations. The look of despair in their eyes will catch your breath and find it's way into your own private thoughts as well. I cannot tell you how many times the decent folk around our country are responding to those that have survived the greatest disaster that some folks up in our governing body say could have ,should have, been prevented. The few that I have spoken with are all asking the same questions over and over. What happenned to our great country and her vast resources? I don't answer that question but instead roll with the punch. I try to direct their anger ,their frustration, their downright hostility towards their elected officials away for the moment. I ask them about their families and missing loved ones. I hear first hand how mothers and fathers didn't have the choice of loading up in an SUV and filling the tank full of gas. I hear so many of them echo the same plight that their city was a welfare city .. that those that didn't get out couldn't get out if they wanted too. They do not have the vast sums of money available to just head off for a mini-vacation at some motel and hang out in the lounge. They live from welfare check to welfare check . I am reminded that it was the last of the month when Katrina hit and having a spare hundred or three was not an option. These are the people that Katrina was allowed to smack around. These were the humble , the poor , the American blight that seems to be sweeping the nation. The seperation of class seems to be getting greater and greater. The Middle Class is for a fact becoming poorer and less effective to raise the next generation beyond the present ones financial growth. These survivors that are coming up into our own backyards are indeed indicative of the greater social/economic unrest that will have a diffinate major impact on our society as we know it.

I am walking the soup lines this morning handing out flip-flops and t-shirts. I witness untold hysteria coming in waves as moms try desperately to gather their children amongst themselves and retain their own sanity. Nevermind pride or dignity, they need mental help as well as the basics for getting thru the day. I am cornered and questions fly at me so quickly that it becomes appearent that their problems are much bigger than previously understood. I am taken aback by the intelligence of these people . They are not stupid by any means and are asking some tough questions. Like why our Administration( I am being polite here) diverted billions of our own tax dollars from our schools ..our food programs..our housing programs..and even our public health programs to establish this so called Dept. of Homeland Security ... These survivors felt that this Pres.has truely let them down. They vented about how we were not considered being patriotic if we so much as question his wisdom,leadership,and dramatic changes in the social/economic programs and instead went along for the ride to support the Homeland Security Act that utterly failed to even establish bottled water to victims some four -five days later after the Hurricane. They wanted answers to these disturbing questions and I wasn't the one to tell them how come the aid was so slow getting there.

I met several that have family along the coasts and have not heard from them and then asked what about aid for them as well .Are these people being overlooked as well?? Seems to me that our fellow countrymen are just now coming out of shock and are wanting answers that as a fellow countryman I cannot give them. WE as a nation must begin to realize that not only are we facing many years of hardships and rebuilding but also some very basic problems with the direction our country is headed in must be addressed as well. There is a huge swelling of social unrest coming out of this tragedy and that must be dealt with. This is our nation ,I keep telling them. This is our country,for the people,by the people and we need to gather the reigns back in our control if we all want to succeed and achieve prosperity as one nation . Kinda reminds me of when I was growing up -we used to say our Pledge of Allegence each and every morning before we began our daily school day. I speak softly and try to offer words of encouragement and give correct answers to so many other questions but I sense another problem here and Katrina may just be the straw that broke the camels back. I do not want anarchy nor do I relish the idea of social unrest/uprising(?) but the mood here is begining to shift towards the haves vs. the have nots and I believe we that have are severally outnumbered. I don't share my own thoughts here but just want to reflect the opinions voiced by so many people. I will continue to reach out to these survivors and offer what little help I can give and I urge you on their behalf to try to help however slight as well. May God Bless Our Country.
What a week it has been.Cannot wait for next week.”

“Thanks for sharing all this quiet!”

“It's pretty obvious these people are used to receiving handouts. This type of mentality should not be encouraged in our country unless we want to see it's destruction. The citizens of New York handled disaster much more maturely and civilized. That was very encouraging. It's very discouraging to see these people's poor attitudes.”

“I had to close my office door so that passersby wouldn't see my tears.

I am definitely giving this text to my students - but without the political content.

Thank you and God bless you.

Doug”

“I understand your comment about political issues... I did not like to report it because it seemed to me a rather political slant as well but I say what I hear and let the chips fall where they land.

I also can understand the NY vs.NO attitude yet one was man made and the other for the most part was an act of nature. peace dude.
last edited: 9/06/05 8:55:10 PM”

“Apples and Oranges, mp.

The physical affects of 9/11 in NYC were confined to the are surrounding the WTC. Katrina took out an entire city.”

“I have no problem with the political commentary, but I'm a Canadian and it isn't really my business to comment. It also is not pertinant to my teaching which is English as a second language at the senior high school level.

I could engage in a conversation about how our Canadian authorities might react (and will), but comments on the reaction of others doesn't seem to me relevant in the high school context.”

“Wow again. Thanks!”

“Quietone,
I read your account and could envision your experience... It must be a life-changing experience you are going through.... Makes me think about how fortunate we are on TT-- the fact that we have a home to go to and access to other people around the world via the internet... It's a luxury that none of these people have any more....

Take a few moments of time when you can to try to compose yourself and to help keep your sanity. Your willingness to help is a God send to the people whose lives you will touch. They may not know your name or how to get in touch with you, but I'm sure that they will remember your kindness in the future.”