[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20767-20768]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              DISASTER BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN HUMAN NATURE

  (Mr. GINGREY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take this opportunity briefly 
to just say that in the aftermath of this terrible natural disaster 
known as Katrina we certainly have heard a lot of name-calling and 
finger-pointing on both sides of the aisle in regard to who

[[Page 20768]]

might be responsible, who did good, and who did bad. I think at the end 
of the day, after we have an opportunity in this House to thoroughly 
investigate that, we will have answers to those questions.
  In the meantime, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to let my colleagues know 
that when I had an opportunity to go down to Baton Rouge to one of the 
shelters over the Labor Day weekend, I did not see the worst in human 
nature, as depicted in some of the TV scenes with the looting and the 
crime in the immediate aftermath of the levee break. I saw the best of 
human nature. I saw people pulling together, working hard; the Red 
Cross folks and volunteers doing all they could, driving down to Baton 
Rouge or trying to get down into the gulf coast or into Mississippi or 
New Orleans; just dropping everything and taking days off work and 
bringing supplies. It was really an amazing show of the best in human 
nature.

                              {time}  2200

  It is something that I want to tell my colleagues that have not seen 
that side of the issue, a lot of good is coming out of this natural 
disaster. Hopefully we will continue to see that good as we help the 
people in the gulf coast, and particularly in the city of New Orleans, 
put their lives back together.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time to touch on this. As we go through 
this week and the next several weeks, we will be talking more and more 
about this, hopefully during Special Orders, and drawing from other 
experiences, and experiences I experienced myself a week or so ago in 
the gulf coast area.

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