Resources

After the May 22 tornado in Joplin, MO, I decided to spend my vacation helping remove rubble. After three weeks of standing in 95 degree heat and loading bricks into wheelbarrows, I was depressed and exhausted. During the summer of 2011 tens of thousands of Americans came to Joplin to help, an example of the good hearted American spirit. Strangely enough, the work, brutal and miserable, was also joyful. Particularly the comradship. Joplin looked like Hiroshima after the atomic bomb hit. Standing in rubble from horizon to horizon, hot, miserable, exhausted, with hundreds of other people scattered around nearby; this way joyful. The people were beautiful. My belief in humanity was rekindled.

One day I couldn't take it anymore, so I drove south to my home in northwest Arkansas. Anything to get away from the horrible devastation, the acres of rubble and death. On the highway I got three phone calls, three friends who had been worried about me, and were calling to inquire. When I put the phone down I noticed I was going 80 MPH in a 65 zone. I also noticed that I couldn't see the road. My God, was I having a stroke?  I slowed and pulled off on to the shoulder of the highway, stopped the car, turned off the motor, and started sobbing like a baby. God it felt good.

Back in the rubble, a friend of mine was standing in what used to be someone's nice house, when a young lady and a ten year old boy approached. My friend could instantly tell that these people were the pre storm residents of the house. "We just came back to see if we could find anything" the lady sadly explained. My friend looked down at his feet, saw a football, picked it up and threw a pass to the boy. "What do you say to the nice man.?" said the lady. "You're a looter!"  the boy yelled.
They all three laughed for five minutes. 

The human spirit is indestructable.

We'll have to use future resources for natural disaster recovery, rather than warfare.