Humanity shines through the trying darkness

Americans have connections they don’t realize they have. This was borne out in Houston with the appearance of a Texas flotilla composed of fellow flood victims who spent their days (and some nights) helping their neighbors and strangers to safer ground. Strangers were helping strangers.

Responders, their own homes flooded, worked to exhaustion to bring people to collection points. Helicopters of all stripes were flying into wrecked neighborhoods to lift men, women, children, the injured and ill, and family pets to safety.

The devastation in Texas, Florida, the Caribbean – and now Mexico City – has produced a wave of tsunami proportions of bottled water, clothing, victuals, medicines, tarps and tents, and cash to sustain survivors and aid in their recovery. Special evacuation and then resupply flights went before and after the eyes [of the hurricanes] to afflicted cities, often the singular way in or out.

And these acts of courage and humanity are not limited to the USA. The same is happening in Mexico and in the Caribbean (probably the most devastated). Only the flags may be different; resolve and resiliency were the same. The common humanity shone through the storm and continues to light our ways.

John Watson