Can people also post some good news about those who care

[TayTay]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1745924

(Have I mentioned lately that I love Massachusetts.)

Another Mass effort. This one is a fund-raising effort led by kids
http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=62657

So, make me feel better. Tell me what the good and decent and caring people of America are doing for the people who have been so devastated by the Katrina. You know, We The People are really pretty good. It's our current leadership that sucks.

What's going on in your area?

[Island Blue]

1. Two of our local high schools

(big rivals) are playing each other in football tonight, and I heard they will be taking donations at the gate to be given to the Red Cross. Since this is such a big rivalry, there is sure to be a huge crowd so I'm sure they will collect a good deal of money.

That's all I've heard about so far, but I know there will be more.

[politicasista]

2. Tennessee is opening the door for college students

from the Gulf Coast areas affected by Hurricane Katrina to attend colleges up here. Thanks Governor Bredesen. :yourock:

[rox63]

3. My employer

is making cash contributions to the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity, and is also providing phone systems and associated software to the hurricane relief fundraising telethons tonight and tomorrow. They are also lending additional systems of the same type to the Red Cross, to handle their extra fund-raising call volume during the relief effort.

[whometense]

4. My husband told me last night

that BC is offering to take in 100 Loyola students. I imagine the situation is somewhat fluid.

Edited to add that although good news has been very scarce this week, the american people (a small contingent of mean-spirited wingnuts excepted) time and again prove themselves to be generous in spirit and in fact, which is a great deal more than anyone could say about their president. I came home this afternoon to find Condiliar making excuses and spinning madly on the teevee. I wish the american people had the president their generosity and compassion deserve.

The media seems to have taken a cold bucket of water to the face this week. Too bad their eyes weren't open last year. Perhaps New Orleans would have been spared. Or at least rescued.

Also, BC has this page up: http://www.bc.edu/publications/bcm/katrina/ so alums could check in and let everyone know how thay are doing.

[rox63]

5. Massachusetts taking 2,000 evacuees

State plans for influx at Logan, convention center

By Lisa Wangsness and Michael Levenson, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | September 4, 2005

Massachusetts is making plans to accommodate about 2,000 weary, storm-ravaged evacuees displaced by Hurricane Katrina in a cooperative effort between the state and city that will involve hospitals, schools, churches, charitable organizations, and businesses, officials said yesterday.

The plan, dubbed Operation Helping Hand, involves plans for a triage and medical evaluation center at Logan International Airport and a temporary shelter at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in South Boston, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. The mayor said the city and state are developing the plans in response to a request from the federal government.

Menino discussed the operation at City Hall yesterday and Governor Mitt Romney plans to hold a press conference today to offer more details. Romney aides said a task force will be named to oversee the operation in anticipation that evacuees will be sent to Massachusetts, though they have not been told of an exact date.

More at the link:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/09/04/state_plans_for_influx_at_logan_convention_center/

[rox63]

10. MA now taking 4500 evacuees

The additional 2,500 will be housed at Otis Air Base on Cape Cod.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/05/2500_katrina_evacuees_headed_to_cape_base/

[sandnsea]

6. Check this

Lots of local and national groups helping, updating continually.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/katrina.htm

[TayTay]

7. I love you my dear

This is wonderful! Just wonderful!

I appreciate the updates and the great, great work. This is how we, as Americans, refind ourselves, one at a time.

[sandnsea]

8. Self-healing I imagine

I suspect I would have gone MAD the last few days if I hadn't been able to feel good about these little ripples of hope.

On another note, old friends of the family called this morning, were in town unexpectedly. They had moved to one of their kids' homes recently, who had also moved since my last contact info which I didn't know. So... I had to break the news; oy. Tough morning. But better this way I think, we got to cry and hug and heal.

So who cares about looting tv's again??? I don't get it.

[BlueIris]

9. I also would have gone mad without the hopeful stories

of generosity, caring and magnanimity.

[ginnyinWI]

11. it's good to have good news for a change

I forwarded the article to my college daughter, who is saying that all of the news is so bad that she just feels like distancing from it all.

[fedupinBushcountry]

12. We are donating money at work

and our boss is going to match it, we already have over $500., about 50 employees, and it will end on Friday.

Also I found out that Jesse Jackson ended up bringing the people he had to Newport News, so my son may be teaching some of them, he is volunteering for any educational needs.

[TayTay]

13. I talked to my husband about having a Care Day in town

He is going to see what he can do. I have been noticing kids opening up lemonade stands on semi-busy streets around me. This is great, but the kids are venturing into the streets and I'm afraid someone's good intentions are going to wind up getting someone hurt.

So, I asked my hubbie to bring up the idea of letting the kids in my town have a day at one of the local school and wash cars, have a bake sale, maybe do a flea market and invite some of the local restaurants in to donate some food and make some money for hurricane victims. (We have 2,500 coming in to MA.)

It's a start and it helps people come together as a community and it let's good kids cary out an impulse to do something for their fellow man, safely. I'll let you know how it turns out. (It's a proposal. Thes things take time. We have to be skillful politicians to get it done. I like good ploticians, they figure things out.)

[jillan]

14. You should see the AAR studios in Phx!

The parking lot was full of new things and they had already delivered 2 trucks full. The lobby was full or used items. And it's all going to the people from NO that are staying in Phx ALONG WITH THEIR PETS. Thank you to our wonderful dem Governor! Right now they are staying at a sporting center. But there are web sites up and running for Zonies to take these people into their homes.

Plus Sun morning a woman in the part of town I live in rented a UHaul on Thurs nite to drive down to NO. She didn't do any advertising. All by word of mouth, and that truck was FULL.

[Island Blue]

15. I have another one to add

The program I work for will be working in conjunction with another county government program to hold a pig pickin' fund raiser later this month. We are asking local restaurants to donate food and other items needed so we can keep our cost down, therefore increasing our profits which will be donated to Gulf Coast relief efforts.

There are also a lot of other efforts under way with various local churches and other organizations. It's always so heartening to see the response of ordinary folks who feel that part of "getting on with their lives" includes taking time out to help their fellow human beings.

[ginnyinWI]

16. milwaukee

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep05/354321.asp

179 people, plus pets, arrive on 2 flights

Holding on to their dogs and carrying garbage bags filled with the only possessions not taken by the water that flooded their homes and city, the evacuees blinked in the sunlight as they got off a Delta Air Lines charter Thursday at Mitchell International Airport. Some had never been to Wisconsin before. Some asked if it got cold here.

<snip>

Gov. Jim Doyle greeted everyone as they disembarked on the tarmac next to the Wisconsin Air National Guard 128th Air Refueling Wing. Some hugged him. Some told him their heartbreaking stories.

"I just had a man get off the airplane (and) say to me he had been in an attic for eight days, surrounded by water, that his roommate had drowned, that he had to move up to the upper floor to get away from the bodies," Doyle said. "We were all touched. These are people coming right from the middle of it."

<snip>

"I'm glad I came up here to - where am I? Milwaukee, Wisconsin? It looks like a beautiful city," Pridgen said.