Front Line Heroes

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, I visited the Gulf Coast where some 1,833 people had died. My assignment was to cover the tragedy for Salon.com, but once there, I got involved with relief efforts by the grassroots groups that had gathered to help survivors.

Handing out food and blankets to people, I got into conversations with newly homeless residents of East Biloxi and Gulfport.  These were people who were poor before the big storm struck and destroyed what few possessions they once had had.

Now one of the few things many of them had left was their faith. So I found myself praying with people -- an activity that was unfamiliar to me -- often standing in a circle and holding hands.

As part of my reporting, I noticed that the large, well-known relief organizations, such as the Red Cross and United Way, were no longer on the scene. This was four to five months after the storm and they had exited once their initial relief efforts had concluded.

In their place, small organizations with limited resources took on the work of helping local people rebuild and gain access to the insurance and government benefits they were entitled to. Most residents had no access to the Internet, which is how they could apply for aid; many could not read or write well anyway and needed basic help with their applications.

Church groups, often from distant congregations, came to their rescue. It was one of the most impressive and heart-warming examples of people helping people I had ever witnessed.

One day, as I was helping a man who'd lost everything but his truck, where he now lived, he thanked me and said he knew we would switch roles someday in the future.

"You live out there in California, where they have those big earthquakes. When that big one hits, I'll be coming there and I'll look you up and make sure you're okay."

When I got back home to the Bay Area I filed my story, which I titled "Everything's Broken," after a Bob Dylan song. A few old friends contacted me about the situation down south and asked what they could do for the people I'd met there. One Stanford friend, Perla Ni, decided she was going to form an organization that would provide guidance to anyone who wished to support the types of non-profits I'd witnessed at work on the Gulf Coast.

The organization she created, GreatNonprofits. org, is alive today, providing information on thousands of non-profits that is difficult to get elsewhere. One feature allows volunteers, donors, beneficiaries, employees and board members to rate each organization.

Maybe check it out one of these days.

***

I've been thinking about the post-Katrina devastation lately in the context of the pandemic. As awful as the impacts from that monster storm were, they were small and localized compared to Covid-19, with over 16 million cases and more than 646,000 deaths worldwide.

Roughly a quarter of those cases and deaths have occurred in the U.S.

The scope is overwhelming our ability as individuals to comprehend what we are witnessing. How can we organize ourselves to help one another when we *all* are at risk?

What our front-line workers are doing is to fight this battle in the only way possible -- patient by patient. They have no other choice. They wear masks and gloves and protective clothing as they reach those who need immediate medical assistance and they transport them to hospitals where other workers take over in the effort to save lives, one life at a time.

To do this work they are living examples of the faith that every life is worth saving. Each human being is inherently valuable. And we are all in this together.

All for one and one for all.

It doesn't matter which faith you practice as long as you accept that fundamental principle.

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken

Broken bottles, broken plates,
Broken switches, broken gates,
Broken dishes, broken parts,
Streets are filled with broken hearts
Broken words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is broken

              -- Bob Dylan

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