One positive of Harvey - bringing people together and helping one another

Houston - A Beacon of Light for the World

Can we coin that phrase?

 

If Hurricane Harvey can get Joel Osteen to help people it truly is a miracle.

 

...typed as a John Cougar Mellencamp song plays softly in the background

 

Saw it first hand the way people came out to help one another was simply awesome.

 

Saw this on FB...

"I’m not a Texan. I don’t adore the Lone Star State. I’m a transplant who’s lived in Austin for the last four years. I can’t name the state fish, I don’t understand the thing with mums at Homecoming, and I think chicken fried steak sucks. I don’t care about Friday Night Lights.

But I married into a Texas family. A Texas family with crazy deep roots. My wife is a direct descendant from the Texas Revolution. Through my marriage, I get a front row seat to all things that filter through the Texas lens. I’ve learned a lot about bluebonnets and Whataburger. I know the difference between casual allegiance with Texas colleges, what it really means to be a Longhorn, and the difference between good salsa and crap that came out of a jar.

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned as an outsider looking in, it’s that there’s a sense of purpose to these people like I’ve never seen. A central passion runs through Texans unlike any other American identity. Pride percolates here. It’s something people who aren’t from Texas just can’t grasp. We may have a docile sense of civic pride for our hometowns, but nothing like this state demands of its residents.

The Texas flag flies as high as the American flag, while the state Capitol is just a smidge taller than the U.S. Capitol, because – Texas. There are Texas flags on everything. And folks all over this huge collection of miles expect a reverential obsession from those who choose to take up this address, if only for a while.

That sense of purpose and absolute unwillingness to bend in their pride is why Texas will only become stronger in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Before Texas, I spent seven years in New Orleans, a place that knows about heartbreak and flooding. To love New Orleans is to love the city. But a New Orleanian ain’t much of a Louisianan, despite them being hand in hand. They’re two different cultures. But here, even if you’re from the Panhandle or live along the Gulf of Mexico, you still adore this state and will bond together under that flag, that symbol

Typically, cities talk smack on one another, and the outlying country towns don’t want anything to do with the big cities and their completely different personalities. There are liberals and conservatives, cowboys and city slickers, white folks, brown folks, black folks and every shade in between wearing cowboy boots. This place has many stories, many sides to the dice.

Harvey took many lives. It dumped acres of water onto the streets of Houston, decimated Rockport, and flooded Galveston and cities and towns across southeast Texas. But Texas will lick its wounds. Texas will come back bigger and better, and brighter and with more Texas-ness than you can imagine. Texans cannot allow for their diamonds to go unpolished. The thought of a place in Texas where local culture dies just doesn’t feel right. There are no places where the roads are unfinished, or the buildings lie in ruins – that would go against everything these people have known their whole lives: This land is precious and it is our birthright.

........ H-E-B and Buc-ee’s, two Texas brand giants, came to the rescue, offering shelter, food, showers, and support. Mattress Mack, a Houston mattress maven, opened his warehouses so folks could get a good night’s rest. The people here know a love that moves deeper than their sense of pride – it’s a calling of purpose.

You cannot count Texas out. There’s no other state in our union that could handle this hurricane. New York has taken its lumps. New Orleans knows what loss feels like, but this is a monster named Harvey that we’ve never seen before. Who better to challenge Harvey head-on than Texas? They’ll do it wearing an Astros cap and with a twisted smile, daring that water to take a piece of the land they love so much."

Robert Dean is a writer and journalist living in Austin.

 

*** yeh bro

 

A special place in hell for these three...

 

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If it’s any consolation, Hurricane Irma might **** up Trump’s Caribbean mansion http://bit.ly/2vKjYYs

8:26 PM - Sep 5, 2017

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Yeah, it's unfortunate when people have to bring politics into the mix during a natural disaster, especially in criticizing President Trump for visiting Texas. Oh, wait, we didn't do that. But there is this:

QUOTE="bigtexxx, post: 7278230, member: 4585"]Obama shamefully tried to have his "hero moment" and take advantage of the crisis that has killed many people and caused such heartbreaking loss in NYC. Mayor Bloomberg's response? Stay out, chump -- we're not the stage for your photo ops. Well done, Mayor.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/30/Bloomberg-to-Obama-Stay-Out-Things-To-Do

President Obama has been a busy bee the last two days, spending a huge swath of time with the press and in front of the cameras. Aside from using the White House website as his personal PR firm – putting out pictures of himself with the folks at FEMA and the Red Cross and in the White House situation room, and giving updates stating that he had “expressed his concern” and been informed “throughout the night” – Obama desperately wanted to visit New York City to let the photographers capture him overseeing the damage. He wanted his hero moment.

And Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City doesn’t have time for that nonsense. He’s actually too busy being the mayor of a city in major crisis to squire Obama around for his election campaign.

Today, Bloomberg rejected Obama’s offer to visit the city. “We’d love to have him, but we’ve got lots of things to do,” said Bloomberg. It was “fine” for Obama to visit New Jersey, Bloomberg said. “People understand the storm and he doesn’t have to … he’s got a lot of things to do.”

The White House then followed suit by claiming that the arrangement was mutual, and that they agreed it “would not be the right time to visit New York City.” Sure.[/QUOTE]

You've been a petty, small-minded person for years on this board, so excuse us if we don't buy your kumbaya thread. Maybe, if you were like this consistently- like more respectful of others and not acting like a condescending ass most of the time, we'd agree with you. But we know you'll go back to being a dick, unfortunately. Very sad that it takes a tragedy for you to act like a decent person.

 

Wtf?????

 

Stephen Colbert (Democrat donor and host of late night show) went on TV and lied to millions of people saying that the President didn't meet with any Harvey victim and watched the disaster from far away.

 

LOL... "nice thread". bigtexxx has gone all soft. Must be all worn out defending Trump, insulting Obama, and starting really bad threads...

 

It's not off-topic at all. I had several relatives in New Jersey who were deeply impacted by Hurricane Sandy. It, like Hurricane Harvey, is the time that you don't bring politics into the discussion. But, of course, you did back then- because in your little small-minded world, if it involves Obama, it's fair game.

What's really sad is that this post, coming from many other conservatives, would have been welcome. But you've been too much of a rude dick to too many people. Sorry if the truth hurts.

You're going to need a LOT more posts like this to convince us that you have changed from being a didactic assclown to a decent person who we occasionally disagree with. Plenty of other posters have set this bar: Astrodome, SpaceGhost, Tallanover, even ATW- we disagree, but they don't act like asses for the large majority of the time (and yes, we liberals do as well- including me).