Just a week ago we got hit by another hurricane.
Now if you\'re a Louisiana resident this is just one of those things you get used to.
Here in Baton Rouge, Rita hit us harder than Katrina did.
A couple of days before Rita hit, I developed a viral infection that I thought was the flu, ultimately it was much, much worse, but that\'s another story.
About 3 am I get a phone call from my brother, he needs my help because the water is rising fast at my mother\'s house, and we need to sandbag.
Now I\'m already sick as a dog, but it needs to be done, so off I go to my mothers house.
My brother, my brother -in-Law, and I. grab a shovel and head to our local fire station.
You see, here in Louisiana a lot of the local fire stations have huge piles of sand and bags just for this occasion.
When we first got there it was the three of us with one shovel filling bags and loading up our truck with them.
The rain was so bad, and the sand so wet, I was sinking up to my calves, hacking my guts up.
We filled up the truck and went to lay down those bags.
We went back for more and there were about 8 more people there, to get sandbags for their own use, seeing how bad I was doing, these guys actually started filling sandbags for us before they had even brought theirs to take care of their homes. We told them not to worry about us and go take care of their stuff, but they helped us anyway.
We got that truckload filled in a quarter of the time.
We came back a third time to get sand bags and people from the subdivision across the street from the fire station had set up lights, brought a few coolers of beer and soda, and were pitching in filling sandbags.
These peoples homes were in no danger of flooding, yet here they were at about 4:30 am helping complete strangers, sharing their beer and working side by side with each other. Black, white, mexican, it didn\'t matter. I\'d never met any of these people yet here they were helping us and each other.
There were no guns and no fighting, in fact the attitude was quite jovial. They even made me stop helping and get out of the rain because of how sick I was.
In fact our only real down point, was that Sean Penn didn\'t show up to help us.
Now Baton Rouge and surrounding areas are a bit more rural than most cities, and I think that\'s the difference.
I\'ve travelled extensively, I\'ve lived in the \"enlightened\" state of California, where I was ridiculed for being from the South, where people were so full of themselves and their \"causes\", but wouldn\'t lift a finger to help their neighbors. I\'ve lived in rural areas where people, often more worse off than you, would offer you the shirt off their backs if you were in trouble.
I tell you this, out of all the cities ,all the states, all the countries, I\'ve been to I wouldn\'t live anywhere but the South. (Except maybe Australia, they have great hospitality and have a lot in common with the working \"Redneck\" that is scoffed at in the North. Plus beautiful women with exotic accent\'s. What more could you want?)
New Orleans was a fluke, compounded by idiocy, an inept police force, a population unwilling to help themselves and bumbling beurocrats.
We\'re not all like New Orleans, if fact, the vast majority are not.
There is hope for the human race, move out of the cities and you\'ll find it.
Now if you\'re a Louisiana resident this is just one of those things you get used to.
Here in Baton Rouge, Rita hit us harder than Katrina did.
A couple of days before Rita hit, I developed a viral infection that I thought was the flu, ultimately it was much, much worse, but that\'s another story.
About 3 am I get a phone call from my brother, he needs my help because the water is rising fast at my mother\'s house, and we need to sandbag.
Now I\'m already sick as a dog, but it needs to be done, so off I go to my mothers house.
My brother, my brother -in-Law, and I. grab a shovel and head to our local fire station.
You see, here in Louisiana a lot of the local fire stations have huge piles of sand and bags just for this occasion.
When we first got there it was the three of us with one shovel filling bags and loading up our truck with them.
The rain was so bad, and the sand so wet, I was sinking up to my calves, hacking my guts up.
We filled up the truck and went to lay down those bags.
We went back for more and there were about 8 more people there, to get sandbags for their own use, seeing how bad I was doing, these guys actually started filling sandbags for us before they had even brought theirs to take care of their homes. We told them not to worry about us and go take care of their stuff, but they helped us anyway.
We got that truckload filled in a quarter of the time.
We came back a third time to get sand bags and people from the subdivision across the street from the fire station had set up lights, brought a few coolers of beer and soda, and were pitching in filling sandbags.
These peoples homes were in no danger of flooding, yet here they were at about 4:30 am helping complete strangers, sharing their beer and working side by side with each other. Black, white, mexican, it didn\'t matter. I\'d never met any of these people yet here they were helping us and each other.
There were no guns and no fighting, in fact the attitude was quite jovial. They even made me stop helping and get out of the rain because of how sick I was.
In fact our only real down point, was that Sean Penn didn\'t show up to help us.
Now Baton Rouge and surrounding areas are a bit more rural than most cities, and I think that\'s the difference.
I\'ve travelled extensively, I\'ve lived in the \"enlightened\" state of California, where I was ridiculed for being from the South, where people were so full of themselves and their \"causes\", but wouldn\'t lift a finger to help their neighbors. I\'ve lived in rural areas where people, often more worse off than you, would offer you the shirt off their backs if you were in trouble.
I tell you this, out of all the cities ,all the states, all the countries, I\'ve been to I wouldn\'t live anywhere but the South. (Except maybe Australia, they have great hospitality and have a lot in common with the working \"Redneck\" that is scoffed at in the North. Plus beautiful women with exotic accent\'s. What more could you want?)
New Orleans was a fluke, compounded by idiocy, an inept police force, a population unwilling to help themselves and bumbling beurocrats.
We\'re not all like New Orleans, if fact, the vast majority are not.
There is hope for the human race, move out of the cities and you\'ll find it.
It’s wonderful when people pull together for the greater good...I wish the President and his minions could of seen all those strangers helping Evil Dave, it would show them what America should really be about.
