OPINION:
Hurricane Harvey may be leaving a swath of disaster and destruction across parts of Texas.
But it’s still not enough to kill the American spirit.
Look at this, from Houston: “An unidentified reporter approached a man as be began putting his boat into the flooded river that yesterday was an interstate highway. The Independent Journal Review reports he asked the man … what he ’is about to do.’ The man responded, ’I’m gonna go try to save some lives,’” Breitbart noted.
And with that, the guy, who identified himself as from Texas City, went about his business.
Austin Kellerman, news director at a television station in Little Rock, Arkansas, posted the brief video of the conversation on Twitter.
And in a separate tweet, Kellerman posted a video of Mister Rogers talking about life lesson — about the need to look amid the darkness for the people who are trying to help.
“You will always find people helping,” Kellerman quoted the American icon as saying, in text above the video. And then Kellerman added this personal message: “Well done Texas. Long road ahead. We’re with you!”
Fox News caught other feel-good moments among the disaster.
Ellison Barber, whose Twitter account lists her as a correspondent for Fox, showed photos of citizens helping citizens — a man carrying a woman and baby from the water, men helping n elderly gentleman to safety, a correspondent from an on-location television flagging a rescue boat to save a truck driver, rescuers bringing trapped children — one in a wheelchair — to safety.
And not all the rescuers were professionals.
“I have a friend who has transported 50-plus people to safety over the past 2 hours in the bed of his truck,” one social media poster retweeted by Barber wrote. “It’s everywhere #HoustoniansRock.”
“A rescue on live TV,” Barber tweeted, alongside a Fox video of the dramatic scene as it unfolded. “This guy doesn’t appear to be a first responder … just a regular person, stepping in and saving 3 people #HoustonFlood.”
Another, from Barber: “@KPRC2 interviewed a man using his own boat to get his neighbors out of their flooded homes. #LookForTheHelpersTX #HoustonFlood.”
Amid the darkness, a light — many, many lights. Texas may be facing a devastation the rest in the nation pray hard to avoid — but they’re responding with a mettle and kindness that reminds of old-timey values and virtues. They’re taking desperation and despondency and turning it into inspiration and joy. And they’re showing a nation torn by politics and partisanship that the spark that helped make America great — the whole “we’re in this together” mindset — is still very much alive and burning.
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