Friday, September 30, 2005

A Katrina Lesson

Last weekend my suburban New Jersey town organized a Katrina fund raiser. I read about it in my local newspaper or I wouldn't even have known -- since only people with schoolkids ever seem to know anything that goes on in my town.

Over the years I've seldom seen my town really come together. In fact it isn't really a town in the traditional sense, having been lopped off a neighboring town in the '20's and named for the wealthy owner of what became a gated luxury housing development. Instead of a "Main Street" there's a shopping mall or three. If it weren't for the 4th of July fireworks and the Fire Department pancake breakfasts --- you would be hard-pressed to find any sense of shared community.

But last Saturday was all about shared community, about coming together to share our community with others. The woman who organized the day-long event could have been a professional event planner. Everything worked. Right down to the "Katrina dollars" used to buy food and other offerings -- so that real money would be handled by only a few trained volunteers. And I'm told the town made a lot of that real money -- to funnel to the hurricane victims.

There were probably fund raisers like this all over the country. It's the American way of responding to disasters -- a warmth and generosity that unites red and blue states and can still make me proud to be an American -- even when so much else has gone so very wrong.

I grew up in a big city. When my husband and I moved to this place of trees and rocks and black bears we were chasing the small town dream. And finally - last Saturday - we found that dream -- and the town we had hoped to live in all along.

It's too bad it took a horrendous natural and government-made tragedy to bring out the best in our town. But once we get the hang of it -- perhaps we can do it again.
Perhaps we can remember what money should buy -- when so many have lost so much.

Instead of fighting over stupid stuff like whether we need artificial turf for the high school football field.