The dust and sweat produced Monday at Fort McClellan represents one of the finer moments in this community’s history. An army of volunteers sprang into action with rakes, shovels, pitchforks and a gallery of gas-powered lawn machinery at the old military installation to make ready for some of Katrina’s victims.The community’s big heart was on display for the world to see. It is among the first of what should be a series of good deeds as the storm-ravaged seek shelter in Northeast Alabama. Perhaps the last time this region witnessed such mass neighborliness was during the Jimmy Carter Work Project in 2003. Back then, workers pitched in to create new homes for 36 families in Anniston.
This time, the challenge was different, more urgent. On Monday, as many as 2,000 volunteers set about to spruce up the grounds of what was once military housing and will soon be homes for people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.
Spirits have been sagging. Like the rest of the world, we’ve spent the better part of a week watching folks stranded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast desperately begging for relief that was too slow in arriving.
Many have wondered, can this be our United States of America?
The antidote to low morale could be found on the grounds of the old fort in Anniston. At 8 in the morning, a line of cars stretched for more than a mile, inching along the road leading to the base’s PX. The total continued to climb throughout the morning. First, to 800, then 1,500. Finally, around 11:30, the tally was said to be near 2,000 people, some coming from as far away as Atlanta, Mississippi, Texas, Arizona and Tennessee. Here it is, the spirit of America, a people who look after each other, who offer comfort during crisis. What a relief it was to see it in action on this memorable Labor Day.
Once on the grounds, the volunteers went to work. In one section near the "starships" — the name for the housing complexes — clouds of dust shot into the air as a dozen Weedeaters went to work. Grass was cut. A convoy of lawnmowers moved past. Brush was cleared and stacked along the road. One enterprising soul brought a dumptruck and nimbly maneuvered it around the buildings to haul off weeds, trash and tree limbs.
Occasionally, a pickup truck carrying water bottles would drive by to offer refreshment to sweaty workers.
Everyone — young and old, black, white and brown — did their part.
Little by little, the outside of a facility that has been dormant for years began to look presentable.
The human spirit came shining through.
We can’t rescue those who waited and waited outside the Superdome and the New Orleans convention center. We can’t fly helicopters to daringly lift up homeowners stuck on rooftops. We can’t dig through rubble. We can’t provide security on dangerous streets.
But we can and did pitch in the best we could. We’ve got company coming. Thanks to the sweat of thousands, these new residences look a little more like home, which is precisely what they will soon be for people who may feel as if they are on shaky ground. Here is solid, dry ground, and it’s freshly mowed, too.
To those evacuees who will be arriving soon at McClellan, let this be known: This community welcomes you in your time of need. A couple thousand of your new neighbors just did a little Labor Day yardwork to spruce up your new home.
