Christian Science Monitor
by Danny Heitman

12/13/05

In the days after hurricane Katrina, as I hustled to restore our Baton Rouge household to normal, my 9-year-old daughter's Christmas wish list grew longer by the hour. With increasing frequency, as I hauled fallen limbs to the curb and packed away the portable generator, my daughter would tug on my sleeve to announce yet another doll or video game that she wanted under the yuletide tree. I recoiled at the timing of her material longings. We were among the fortunate ones, after all - south Louisiana residents who had dodged most of the hurricane's wrath with no real damage to life or limb. We had reminded our kids quite often of our good fortune, and it seemed that my 9-year-old, young though she is, should have been old enough to know that this wasn't the week to wish for more. Why was she focused on filling her toy box in the midst of so much misery, with New Orleans evacuees arriving literally next door?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1213/p09s02-coop.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp