As countless observers have pointed out, the remarkable response of the people of Houston to Hurricane Harvey stands as a rebuke to the race-baiting Left. Despite the Left’s endless incitement to hatred, when disaster struck, people of all races and backgrounds cooperated in a remarkably successful effort to minimize the damage. This is the subject of Glenn Reynolds’ current column in USA Today: “Hurricane Harvey revealed the awesome power of real America.”
The government response to Harvey — unlike the earlier botched responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy — seems to be going well. But the real story isn’t what the government is doing. It’s what ordinary Americans are doing.
Across the affected area, Americans are coming together to help each other. Despite the racial divisions exacerbated by small numbers of fanatics on the left and right, (and amplified by the press), out in the real America white people, black people and Asians helped each other, men rescued women and children, and so on. The “Cajun Navy,” which had so distinguished itself in response to flooding in Louisiana, took its boats to Texas and started saving people.
People formed human chains to rescue victims, a black man (sent via Chik-fil-A) rescued an elderly white woman from her home on a jet-ski, driving it right out of her flooded living room.
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[W]e’ve seen similar demonstrations elsewhere. The good news is that while disaster-relief authorities used to look down on civilians who wanted to help — amateur rescuers in Katrina had to literally sneak in to New Orleans — now they’ve embraced what they call “whole community response,” in which the efforts of volunteers and residents are welcomed, and in which citizens are encouraged to prepare for disasters in advance.
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What’s amazing is how much of the traditional American “can-do” spirit survives despite a media environment that is relentlessly and seemingly purposefully negative, almost as if it’s designed to divide and demoralize us. But the Harvey experience shows that the real America has survived and even flourished.
Of course, the liberals’ relentless negativity never abates. This, too, is via InstaPundit:
But most Americans understand the lessons of Harvey and Houston, as exemplified by this Michael Ramirez cartoon. Click to enlarge:
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