Volunteers exemplify man's best side, looters show worst

Everywhere you look on the TV news channels, the scene is the same — a once mighty city devastated not only by Hurricane Katrina but subsequent flooding and shortages of everything from food and water to a safe place to sleep.

If only the havoc caused by Mother Nature were the worst of it. While physically it is, what is equally heart-breaking is the rampant looting and rioting in some of the areas hardest hit by the disaster. I could almost understand it if the items being stolen were food and water — basic necessities — by people desperate to feed hungry children or an elderly mother. But a plasma TV and stereo equipment? All of the guns from a New Orleans discount chain store?

Since when did TVs, stereos and guns become "necessities?" Since when did stealing from your neighbor, your family and the most desperate of the poor — because that is what it amounts to — become right?

It is enough to make you question all we stand for and all we cherish.

And yet …

There are the stories of those on the opposite spectrum. The husband and wife (and countless others) who traveled for hours to New Orleans and other devastated communities to help search for survivors. Strangers opening their homes to those left homeless by Katrina. Youngsters and adults at Kootenai Children's Center planning a car wash from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday at 800 McGhee Rd. from to raise money for hurricane victims.

These stories, these people, remind us of who we are and what we should strive to be.

If you want to help, call the Red Cross at 1-800-HELP NOW or go online to the agency's secure Web site at https://www.redcross.org.

Caroline Lobsinger is the managing editor of the Daily Bee.