Disaster brings out best in communities

It is difficult to find a silver lining to a tragedy such as

Hurricane Katrina, which left so much destruction in its wake.

But as Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama rebuild after the

devastating hurricane, which hit land on Aug. 29, there are signs of

that silver lining, which stretches from ground zero all the way to

Glendale, Burbank and the foothills and back again.

It’s called compassion. And over the last couple of weeks it has

been nothing short of astounding to witness it in action. The

community, from its children to public safety officials, is working

in any way they can to help raise money and supplies to help the

victims of what has been called one of this country’s most

destructive storms.

Children have raised hundreds of dollars in lemonade sales. Police

and firefighters have stood on street corners collecting money.

Others have volunteered to go directly into the destruction. Local

Armenians have felt a special motivation to raise money, given the

aid Americans sent to Armenia in the wake of the 1988 earthquake.

Golfers have raise money teeing off at local courses and local

teamsters have donated money to cover the expense of getting donated

goods to the Gulf States.

The list goes on and on, even as private planes land at Bob Hope

Airport bringing hurricane refugees to Los Angeles to get a new

start.

We saw similar efforts in the days after Sept. 11, 2001.

The hurricane and its aftermath have indeed been tragic at a time

when tragedy of all sorts seems hopelessly splashed on headlines from

Iraq to Glendale. And perhaps it is selfish to tout this community’s

selflessness at such a time. After all, in many ways, such tragedy

brings out the worst in people as well.

But when mobilizing to help occurs on such a scale, we’re reminded

that people still have hope that things will get better. People still

want to see suffering lessened, even in a world, where vengeance, war

and injustice seem to reign.

We can argue over the amount of attention our leaders should have

given to bolstering the infrastructure of the Gulf Coast. And, if we

choose, we can debate the extent to which people did or did not have

a chance to get out of that zone. Many have taken that road, and

there are no doubt important lessons to be learned from how

authorities responded to the hurricane.

But there’s no debate about the humanity that has been shown from

this community.