TheBanyanTree: More Katrina Musings

[Dale M. Parish]

It's ususally like this in the first week of June-- National Guard's all
going to summer camp, and we see the convoys passing both west towards
Ft. Sam Houston, Camp Bullis, Lackland AFB, etc, or east towards Ft.
Polk.  But today, I saw eighteen wheelers loaded with creosote poles and
National Guard and Army Reserve convoys headed east towards New Orleans.
I was in the 420 Army Engineer Brigade 20 years ago, and when my unit
rolled, we took dozers, front-end loaders, cranes, scrapers, and dump
trucks in addition to the typical "deuce-and-a-half"-- the 2.5 ton
covered six-wheel drive general purpose cargo trucks that almost every
unit has.  I didn't see any engineer units today-- mostly the new trucks
that replaced the deuce-and-a-half and three-quarter tons.  I don't know
what these units will be doing once they get to New Orleans, but I'm
afraid that they'll be pulling guard duty-- trying to maintain the peace
and ferry people and supplies into and out of the areas as the water
goes down.  

I got an email from a friend up on IH20-- she's been volunteering all
day at a tent at the Texas State Line Tourist Station.  She says that
the busses have been stopping in with people-- mostly hard-core blacks--
that have only the clothes in which they were rescued, and several
fights broke out over clothing when they were offered showers and
clothes, so they stopped the showers and clothes handouts, herded them
back onto the busses and headed them out to Dallas as they were.  

It's time to go through the closets and unload.  The radio stations
locally have been advising since Thursday that donations were no longer
being taken at the local fair grounds/arena that serves as a shelter--
too much confusion and contention-- they need the donations brought to
the old fairgrounds where they can keep the volunteers and refugees
separated and maintain some control.

Tonight, I went by the library and ran into one of the saddest things
for me-- there was an older man pushing his wife in a wheel chair into
the library.  As I waited in line, they informed the librarian that they
were refugees from Louisiana staying with friends, and that they had
left behind-- maybe lost all-- of their library, and wanted to know if
they could qualify for a library card.  They offered to put up a cash
deposit, anything, if they could just get access to reading materials.
It must be hard to loose your books.  I know that would hurt me.  But
not to have access to any would be worse, I think.  I left cash to cover
an out-of-town card with Brianna, but she wasn't sure that the library
could honor their request because they had no permanant local address.
Bureaucracy.  She're resourceful-- I'll bet she finds a way.

The Blood Bank is calling-- they want all frequent donors to donate
ASAP.  It barely seems like 56 days, but I check -- it has been.  Now to
find the time to get by a center, but it seems strange to me-- I've not
heard of any blood shortages on the radio, and not heard about any real
problems with blood supply.  I wonder if, when you're in the blood
supply business, you don't try to capitalize on any tragedy to garner
sympathy for your cause, whether or not it's justified.

Reading Maria's musings over maturing-- reminds me of an old quote that's attributed to Sam Walton's interview with a young female reporter/interviewer:

Reporter: Mr. Walton, to what do you attribute your success?
Walton: Making good decisions.
Reporter: Mr. Walton, how to you always make good decisions?
Walton: Good judgement.
Reporter: Mr. Walton, how do you get good judgement
Walton: By learning from my bad decisions.

Maria; that which does not kill you makes you stronger.  
To paraphrase Mr. Darwin.

Hugs,
Dale
--
Dale M. Parish
5585 Ada
Beaumont TX 77708
(409) 898-8373    
http://hal.lamar.edu/~dmp8910