Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

[BigV]

Right on!!

I had many people express their disgust at some, not all, of the "official" responses. But without exception, every local I encountered with whom the subject came up said they owed the volunteer effort everything for their survival. The Red Cross, Samaritan's Purse, and Karl Malone. Open up the Yellow Pages to churches and they were all there. And the distinctions between one to the other disappeared. What uniform you wore on Sunday was a matter of monumental indifference when it came to getting the work done.

I was brought to tears more than once by the expressions of gratitude by the people we met. My team and I came from Seattle, and we were working and sleeping and eating and praying alongside teams from New Jersey, Team Vermont, a group of eight guys who piled in a Suburban and drove 1600 miles with a tiny U-Haul trailer full of chainsaws and food and supplies, alongside a doctor from Sonoma California, San Diego. Two ladies from Alabama showed up and said "We want to help". This was a very common expression.

There were people there who were working for pay, and there's nothing wrong with that. As long as both parties respect one another. I heard one story of a home owner who hired a crew of Mexicans to clean out his house. They worked for two weeks and at the end of it, they asked for their pay. The homeowner balked, saying "I fed and housed you these past weeks. Isn't that pay enough?" And then drove them to the outskirts of town and dropped them off. True or not, I did hear the story. Equally bad is gouging on the part of the worker. I didn't hear any stories, but having the distressed homeowner over a barrel and pressuring for more money is unconscionable.

At the intersections were many many signs stuck in the dirt at the edge of the road for house guttin', tree cuttin', "Hungry roofer" (my favorite), mold removal, debris removal, every possible labor offer... Commerce will return to the Gulf Coast.

On a slightly different note, I just heard a story on the radio about volunteers in New Orleans. There is a city park where many people are camping. The city has decreed that if you are camping in the park you own $300 per month if you're in a tent and $350 if you're in a trailer. For the people who are working to clean up the city. Does this sound backwards to you? The city representative is saying the park suffered $46 million dollars worth of damage and the funds are needed to start the rebuilding process. These details are from memory, and I have done little fact checking. I look forward to any corrections.