We have all watched the cries of pain and defiance as people that survived in the wake of Helene tell their stories. It is heartening to see the labors of the real heroes, neighbors and distant charitable folk doing all they can to bring supplies and hope to those who need it the most.
Also telling are the government agents and agencies that kept a distance and made promises without any authentic help. Officials offered pitiful looks while busy about other desires far away, playing politics and placating those in pain from death and destruction with promises that "we are with the government: we are here to save you" and a failing promise to give, then deny, pitiful sums of money to not-enough-victims.
We see in the official response to Helene the rotten promise of socialism, so very little so very late and so reluctantly given. If it would have been a more politically-advantageous place and better-elite-connected people, we may have seen a more strenuous government response. These caught in the storm were those who have been called "deplorables", those who the powerful would just as soon see disappear in favor of more acceptable political serfs and sycophants and migrant polling "scabs".
Fortunately, there is a God in yonder heavens and a good number of his devotees in the mountains and valleys of Appalachia. These are the blessed souls that crawl through destruction to see to the elderly in the back-country and the caring folk that drive hundreds of miles with water and food and supplies to those who watched their family preparations washed away. These are those who will stand before their maker and accept the blessing of God as those who are giving up their lives for their friends, as Christ did.
These mortal angels did what a large and often dismissive government stumbled to attempt - they saved souls. I hope we see those who advocate for a larger and more "give us your loyalty" government are not really here to save anyone but themselves and their demanding overlords. I would rather stand beside a mud-encrusted hillbilly with a chainsaw than a hundred FEMA operatives with clipboards and laptops.
We need to push government out of the way and work together to solve our collective troubles.
