a hopeful word

I haven't said this yet, but I want to say that it's so inspiring to see the helicopters with people working so hard to save everyone. They're the one doing their jobs as quickly as they can, to save the thousands trapped. Whatever we may fault of bureaucracy or of discrimination against race and class, it's the soldiers that commit themselves to this vast humanitarian tasks. Let us simply pray, even the secular one, for the rescue of these people, and let us pray for the South to recover, newly strengthened by the helping hands they give to each other and we give to them.

We thank the soldiers. I just get goosebumps when I think with just a little tear in my eyes of what it must be like to know that you're bringing into safety and comfort a human life one at a time.

We should applaud the initiatives of the hotels, the churches, the households, and everyone for helping or trying to provide the one thing that the victims of the Hurricane Katrina have lost, a place of shelter, a home. It's hard to imagine never returning back to the place of solace. And even if you tried, only to have some people tell you that it's gone.

But we should least of all forget the Red Cross for fashioning themselves one of the greatest humanitarian aid we have yet seen. The organization has endeavored to give shelters, foods, clothes, counseling, and lifelines for military troops to let them tell their families they're okay.

Then there are so many other organizations too numerous to name devoted to the monumental task before us.