DISASTER BRINGS OUT BEST IN COMMUNITIES

Burbank Leader, CA
Sept 17 2005

It is difficult to find a silver lining to a tragedy such as Hurricane
Katrina, which left so much destruction in its wake.

But as Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama rebuild after the devastating
hurricane, which hit land on Aug. 29, there are signs of that silver
lining, which stretches from ground zero all the way to Glendale,
Burbank and the foothills and back again.

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It’s called compassion. And over the last couple of weeks it has been
nothing short of astounding to witness it in action. The community,
from its children to public safety officials, is working in any way
they can to help raise money and supplies to help the victims of what
has been called one of this country’s most destructive storms.

Children have raised hundreds of dollars in lemonade sales. Police
and firefighters have stood on street corners collecting money.

Others have volunteered to go directly into the destruction. Local
Armenians have felt a special motivation to raise money, given the
aid Americans sent to Armenia in the wake of the 1988 earthquake.

Golfers have raise money teeing off at local courses and local
teamsters have donated money to cover the expense of getting donated
goods to the Gulf States.

The list goes on and on, even as private planes land at Bob Hope
Airport bringing hurricane refugees to Los Angeles to get a new start.

We saw similar efforts in the days after Sept. 11, 2001.

The hurricane and its aftermath have indeed been tragic at a time
when tragedy of all sorts seems hopelessly splashed on headlines from
Iraq to Glendale. And perhaps it is selfish to tout this community’s
selflessness at such a time. After all, in many ways, such tragedy
brings out the worst in people as well.

But when mobilizing to help occurs on such a scale, we’re reminded
that people still have hope that things will get better. People still
want to see suffering lessened, even in a world, where vengeance,
war and injustice seem to reign.

We can argue over the amount of attention our leaders should have
given to bolstering the infrastructure of the Gulf Coast. And, if
we choose, we can debate the extent to which people did or did not
have a chance to get out of that zone. Many have taken that road,
and there are no doubt important lessons to be learned from how
authorities responded to the hurricane.

But there’s no debate about the humanity that has been shown from
this community.