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Doing our share for Katrina’s victims
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Posted on Sep 15 2005
The video coverage of the damage to the Southern Mississippi Valley states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama is horrendous, worse than any disaster movie ever made.
Our islands have been through typhoons that caused terrible destruction but nothing compared to what has just happened to this huge hunk of America.
There are hundreds of dead, stretched out on cold sidewalks, floating in flooded allies or drowned in their own homes. It will take years to rebuild from the destruction caused by this hurricane. All the states are trying to help their countrymen in their time of need. The CNMI could also help out. Of course, the CNMI cannot contribute to the same extent as Texas. But, that doesn’t really matter in time of disaster. It is the effort that counts.
Right now, if the CNMI announced it wanted to get into the effort by hiring education professionals who have been rendered homeless and jobless as a result of Katrina, the message would be well received in the mainland, all the way to the national capital. A film of some NMI locals sitting at a refugee camp in island wear with island music playing would probably make CNN. It would be better media for the CNMI than a float in the Rose Parade.
It should also be kept in mind that if the CNMI leadership were to make an immediate and sincere offer to help out as many of the Katrina victims as possible, it would be very helpful to Washington Representative Tenorio in his effort to convince Congress to give the CNMI a seat in the House of Representatives for a Delegate from the CNMI.
And, the bottom line is, we need more trained, experienced, professional teachers now, at least at Tinian Junior/Senior High School, and probably elsewhere.
Let’s pitch in and do our share with the civilian disaster for the Americans in the South, just as our National Guardsmen are doing overseas for the Iraqis, and do a favor for the CNMI at the same time.
Don A. Farrell
Tinian
