Out of Harm's Way

Thought you all would enjoy seeing a shot of the boy's safely out of Rita's way in Ft. Worth this weekend. Too sleepy to write much - will check back soon.

The Calm AFTER the Storm

Aside from the fact I'm wandering around the hospital gathering up linens used by the staff to sleep everywhere they could - and on a Sunday to boot - today feels very normal in the hospital. I'm not sure normal has ever felt so good.

Everyone on the staff who wanted to go home last night was able to go home, with less than 10 employees needing to sleep over in the hospital. People working today no longer have that "Night of the Living Dead" look about them, which is a good thing. People look clean and rested and grateful and familiar, like we just licked a hurricane together (which we did).

Austin waited up until I got home last night at 10pm, and we sat and had a bowl of cereal together, visiting a little about this and that before going to sleep. Could we all just take a moment together to appreciate sleep? And beds? And ceiling fans? And my wife? And my children?

Had a little time this morning to wrestle with Braden before coming in to finish up with my responsibilities here, and will be home tonight in time for dinner with my family. Can we all take a moment to appreciate dinner with your family? And encouraging comments on your blog from family? And...oh, you get the idea.

Phillipians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice."

The Power of a Shower

I just got back from making a quick trip to the house - the family is back safe and everyone looks beautiful. The power was out for just a few hours at our house, and everything is in fine shape. Took a shower, talked with Sheila for a bit, and got extremely sleepy.

Poured a Coke Zero (which is delicious, fyi), let the caffeinated goodness of it wash over me, and back to the hospital. I've got a lot of bone-tired staff who are coming off the day shift, and we still have a disaster code in place so none of them can go home tonight. It could be a very interesting evening.

I've been told I am released to return home tomorrow at noon, barring any unforeseen circumstances. I can handle that...

So far, Rita owes me a shower and a good night's sleep

I saw the Director of Rehab walking down the hall earlier today, and he was spraying air freshener out of a bottle about every 2 or 3 steps. I asked him what he was doing, and he said "this place is starting to smell like people". I don't think I've ever heard that expression before, but it described perfectly the condition within the hospital.

Everyone is trying to get this placed cleaned up now, more family members are leaving and it could almost, sorta fell normal around here again by dinner time. Of course, it will still be unusual to be roaming the halls later with a clip board making sure we have mattresses available for staff and only one employee per mattress. That won't be normal.

But I usually only have the chance to put people to sleep in new hire orientation!

And the Crowd Goes Crazy

There was an eruption of applause and laughter in the cafeteria when the power came back on at lunch around 1:00pm. I know it is entirely psychological, but I actually felt cooler as soon as the lights came back on. Crazy, I know.

After a mad rush to close all exterior doors and windows which had been opened this morning, it's back to business. Most of our family members and visitors left before lunch. A bad night's sleep on the floor, waking to no air conditioning and apparently safe travel around town, and away they went.

I remain hopeful that I will be able to go home for a little while tonight, especially since Sheila and the boys are headed home already! That's my baby!!

Things are looking up.

Still Rita

Things remain a little chaotic. The air conditioning being out has stressed patients who do not have the strength to handle more stress. Staff are tired but performing magnificently.

We have had all our weekend staff call to say they will not be here, so the clinical staff we have are going to have to stay until we get relief staff. No patients appear to be going back to their evacuated hospitals today.

After-rita

The power went out here last night at 1:00am, and we went on generator power. No a/c, and the phones have gone out also. Night staff, visitors and family are free to leave the hospital if they like.

Minimal debris in the parking lot, no flooding, hardly any rain at all, lots of power out throughout the city.

Everyone is safe and well, if not smelly and grouchy. I will tell more when I can.

Love to all.

The Little Storm You Can Take With You Anywhere!

Sheila sent me an hysterical email today and I wanted to share it, because the story she told is the real reason I started the blog, not to update you on the weather.

It seems Shelley and Jamie took Braden to the park in Fort Worth today. While they were there, he met a little boy and began to play. Come to find out, the boy was with his Dad and his Uncle, and they were from Houston, too. The Dad and Uncle came over and starting flirting with, er, talking to Jamie and my wife about the hurricane, and that caused a little storm of its own.

Braden, sensing that his Dad would want someone to intervene, walked over to the four of them, placed his hands on his hips and sternly warned the men to "QUIT TALKING TO MY PARENTS"! Everyone had a good laugh at the cute little guy, until he told them to quit talking or he was going to punch them in the "tummick" (stomache). Sensing that words alone were not getting the message across, he picked up a rock and threw it at one of the men.

And that was the end of their trip to the park.

[Note to self: take Braden to Baskin-Robbins the first night they get home from Ft. Worth.]

Rita 7

Got to make this a quick post as my money has been invited to a poker game in the cafeteria.

We have had a tiny amount of rain today, and the wind is blowing a little bit, but we haven't seen anything worthy of the time and energy we've put into preparing for this gal.

I have earned a reputation today as a mean, mattress-stealing rat for leading a mattress-squad around the hospital taking extra hospital mattresses (about 20 in all) that had been pigeon-holed all over the place by visitors. Took four from a very hateful family who had taken over an entire waiting room, earning me at least one f-bomb and considerable grumbling. The two guys on my mattress squad are my same size though, so they didn't grumble too much!

Took four from an employee's family and hurt their feelings so bad that the employee (maintenance man) and his family left 15 minutes after my visit. I was painfully polite and apologetic, all the while wanting to suggest that maybe their 3 teenaged children didn't need the mattresses as much as the 50+ year old ICU nurses that are asleep on them even as I blog.

I was in charge of employee bed control, making sure that all the mattresses we have were used by employees in patient care areas and not surly teenagers. That made me a very popular man for about 1 hour ("hey, I understand you can give me a bed") and a sorry son-of-a-gun for the next 2 hours ("what do you mean there are no beds left"). I think only 5 or 6 of about 50 clinical employees sleeping here tonight do not have a bed, and they are the younger rehab staff and a couple of strapping young respiratory therapists. Oh, and the diva blonde nurse who "needs a king size bed and a ceiling fan to sleep", who refused my offers of a cot, a stretcher, a sleeping bag and a fully-reclining neuro-wheelchair. I refrained from offering her a minute or two alone somewhere to get over herself, demonstrating that I'm not quite out of patience yet. (By the way, how often do you see a list of things to sleep on and "a stretcher" looks like the best option? Only during a hurricane, I guess.)

Wish there was something more colorful to share about the weather, but all I have is these goofy vignettes of human behavior under stress. My next blog will surely be more weather related. Surely...

Rita, Rita - Wherefore Art Thou, Rita?

1:00pm and no sign of bad weather. The trees are starting to sway a bit, and there are a few more clouds, but it still looks like a normal September day.

We locked the doors to the hospital at 12:00noon today - only people allowed in at this point are family members we were notified to expect and staff. Staff have shown up in enough numbers to cover the weekend, so we are going to be ok. There are easily 100+ family members of staff and 100+ family members of patients in the hospital in addition to the staff.

Everyone will miss their beds at home, but there are plenty of places to sleep tonight, though not everyone will be able to sleep on a mattress or cot. I expect to hear grumbling at bedtime as the cots and mattresses run out, but there's not anything we can do.

We got an order of Ozarka water this morning - lots of it - so water will not be a problem. Seems to be plenty of food, so if we don't run out of coffee, I will survive!

Seems awfully strange to have been busting it under our disaster code for the last 48 hours and we still don't have any sign of the disaster! Was joking with Mom yesterday that a tornado would almost be easier to deal with from a disaster point of view. "It's coming, 'everyone duck', it's over let's assess the damage." All this sitting around waiting is enough to make you go crazy independent of the storm we're about to face.

Finally, there are two distinct subgroups starting to develop among our visitors. There are the ones volunteering to help, and there are the ones complaining about their choices for a free lunch!

We are full of patients, but what we are all going to need more of is patience!

Two personal notes if you will permit: Blair, please feed the spider while I am here this weekend; and Sheila please check your email for a weird-good message.

Rita 5

When all this is over, remind me that I want to do some research on the origins of coffee. Aaaaah, sweet coffee. The taste of it on my lips this morning is like an angel's kiss.

No sweat getting home last night - there wasn't any traffic on the roads I took. All the stores and restaurants are closed, but most of their outside signs were still lit. Looked strange to see restaurants and bars that would have still had lots of customers that time of night with completely empty parking lots. The only businesses open were a few gas stations, which I guess were selling cigarettes and fountain drinks, cause their is no gas to be found between my hospital and our house.

Had a leftover steak and green beans for dinner, watched SportsCenter long enough to see that the Astros had beaten the Pirates 2-1, (behind a strong pitching performance by Galveston native Brandon Backe), then slept quite well until about 5:30.

On the drive into work, I only saw three places open for business: a couple of gas stations (cigs and cokes), the Eskimo Hut drive through beer/wine shed (with customers, I might add), and Dunkin Donuts. God bless the brave doughnut makers of Dunkin Doughnuts, who had customers lined up out the front door at 6:45am buying their little fried circles of love this morning. [Note to self: after hitting your target weight, celebrate at DD with 2 chocolate glazed and 2 french cruller doughnuts plus large joe.]

The sun was just coming up as I drove in, and there is just a little bit of cloud cover overhead, with more noticeable in the southeast sky. A very slight breeze doesn't even hint at trouble in the gulf, and obviously we've not had any rain yet.

I have my sleeping bag, pillow, suitcase and Austin's cub scout knife (Julie - no time to make a special hurricane trail mix, plus probably wouldn't have found a store open) so I am here until they tell me to leave.

Will check in as I can.

Rita 4

I feel like I should apologize for how drab these titles are, but I'm too tired to be clever.

Long day, 10pm and I am about to go home. I have the chance to sleep in my bed, with my ceiling fan, TV on, clean sheets, privacy - and I'm going to take it. Will be back here tomorrow by 6:30am, and don't expect to be able to go home again until Sunday night.

Today was a lot of preparation and a lot of waiting. Watched employees kids, set up sleep rooms for staff and their families, served dinner to staff and patients, unloaded a VERY LATE food delivery into the walk-in freezer/refrigerator (reminded me a little of my Sirloin Stockade days, 53 years ago when I was a teenager). Being in the freezer for half an hour was my favorite part! (Hot, bloody hot.)

Main problems today were staff who cancelled, staff who had been working 16 hours and needed to be relieved, staff who are from the evacuated hospitals who don't know where we keep the ___________ (fill in the blank). Staff, period. Record number of patients - extremely limited and tired staff.

Speaking of tired staff, I'm going home now. Hope I have better luck than the nurse who spent 18 hours in her car driving 40 miles to get here from Clearlake (one of the evacuation areas). At least she didn't bring a bird...

Rita 3

Someone who has lived in Houston all their life said it always get hot right before a hurricane. Not normal hot, which is pretty bad, but HOT. With record high temperatures yesterday and today, I'm in no position to disagree with her. Went out to my car at lunchtime and it is hot, humid and still - the air has a great weight to it.

Conducted a bried experiment at lunch. It started out as an attempt to sneak out for a little food to pigeon-hole in my office, but turned into an "experiment" when I saw the condition of the grocery store. One of the two sets of front doors was closed, so traffic was limited to one side, with people at the front watching you come in and watching you leave. Empty boxes were all over the floor by the registers, people were 7-8 deep in each line, carts full of the weirdest assortment of the remaining food in the store. Lots of chatter, a great deal of energy in the lines, cashiers and sackers working furiously to try to get folks through.

Where are all the courageous restaurant owners? IHOP - closed, Chili's - closed, McDonalds - closed. My bank was closed and the ATM was turned off. Most gas stations either have taken the numbers down off their signs indicating no gas, or put up zeros. Those that have gas had cars at every pump and lines of cars waiting into the street.

The hospital is much more calm today, with the hectic work of admitting patients and setting up their charts completed yesterday. Staffing is still a concern, as the nursing agency we use to supplement staff called at 1:00pm to say all their nurses had cancelled and were either evacuating or committed elsewhere. We've seen the staff split into two groups: one who are dedicated to being with their patients, and one who are dedicated to being with their families. I cannot feel any malice toward those who have refused our request to come in, but am very grateful for those who are here for the duration.

Our food supply truck made it in last night, but our nursing supply truck has called to say they aren't coming. We have a good amount of inventory on hand, and what we don't have we will re-use after washing or improvise. So the good news for patients is their nurses are the most passionate of the bunch, but the bad news is we may run out of supplies.

Crazy stuff going on already. A nurse came with her bird insisting that we keep it in the hospital or she was going to keep driving north, with the bird. So we are bird-sitting in nursing administration. We are offering to keep caged pets in the boiler room as a last resort, but so far it's just the bird. An employee called to ask if she could bring 19 members of her family with her for the weekend. Answer - only if they are all your children and your shoe is in a low-lying area. (OK, I made the shoe part up. "The little old lady who lived in a shoe" - anybody?)

The bosses are starting to get bossier, and Brad is starting to get crankier. We have the corporate COO, the corporate Compliance Officer (don't ask), VP of Quality, (again, don't ask) and 2 other corporate employees. Our local group of folks is doing great - we all work together fine. But some among us want to be Rudy Giuliani and so they are trying to tell everyone what to do. The rest of us are just trying to get our work done.

The storm appears to be headed east of Galveston, which would put us on the "clean" side of the hurricane (front left quadrant) instead of the "dirty" side (front right quadrant). I'm not sure why they designate them clean v. dirty, but the TV people are all saying it. All I know is clean is better than dirty (Mom taught me that, I think) so we're encouraged. Right now, everyone is planning on going home tonight, and then returning early Friday morning to ride it out until Saturday night or maybe Sunday. We expect sustained winds of 75-100mph (a first for me, I believe) and 10 or more inches of rain (nothing compared to the 23 inches in one day from Tropical Storm Allison)!

Still, keep us in your thoughts and prayers, as we will likely have 20-30 children here Friday night/Saturday morning when Rita gets into town. Hopefully they will sleep through the worst of it.

Shelley promised to come home and throw a huge block party if we dodge any house damage - at least we know the carpets will be in good shape for company!

Rita 2

Okay, enough already with the "worst storm to ever hit Texas" stuff on the news. Good grief. Everybody is plenty freaked out here. Every gas station on the way home from work was full of cars waiting for gas, most stations with the digital price signs had at least one grade of gas with $0.00 indicating, I assume, they were out of that level of gas. I filled up last night with mid-grade, because most of the stations near our house were out of regular.

Sheila and the boys arrived safely in Ft.Worth this afternoon with only one incident. Sheila was stopped for speeding this afternoon. When the troopers (one on each side of the car) asked her if she was evacuating, she tried to maintain her composure (wink, wink) as she told of her husband working around the clock at a Houston hospital caring for the sick and dying, and how she hated leaving him behind, etc... As she was about to squeeze out a fake tear, a young man (it's always a young man) came speeding by at 100+ mph (Sheila's estimate). The one trooper literally tossed her driver's license back in the window, yelling "drive safe" as he ran back to his car, with the other trooper a step behind. Sheila passed them with the poor speeding lad a little further down the road, but not before she realized that he had been caught speeding in a work zone. (For Oklahoma residents other than Steve, who will be VERY familiar with the Texas Highway Patrol regulations, that means double the fine!)

You are probably seeing pictures tonight of cars lined up forever on all major roads out of Houston. Glad my family got out ahead of all that. And they closed Austin's school for Thursday and Friday, which means no bad marks on his attendance record! With more than 1,000,000 evacuating, it's already starting to feel strangely quiet.

Our hospital had 80 patients this morning at 7:00am, and 129 by 7:00pm tonight when I left. All the patients from our "at-risk" hospitals were safely evacuated, and the hospital is well prepared for the worst.

Spoke to Austin tonight, who had 87 questions about this contingency and that probability. Tried to answer them all patiently and thoroughly, because I know he is going to be anxious until he gets home to see for himself that the house and I are still standing.

Shelley, whom I adore more tonight than ever before, is anxious too, but tired and busy being brave for the boys. If I could tell you only one story about her that would shed the most possible light on her personality, it would be this. Sunday night she started freaking out about the storm. Monday, after printing hurricane preparation tips off the Internet, she had a sit down planning meeting with me to get our important documents in order. Tuesday am she went to the grocery store, Costco and a number of other places until she felt like she had all the necessary supplies. Tuesday night, after I told her I had to be at the hospital all weekend, we decided she would leave with the boys Wednesday. So up to the attic to get baby pictures, clothes worn when we brought the boys home from the hospital, all precious keepsakes. Wednesday she picks Austin up early from school and leaves Houston, fully prepared to never see her house and her belongings again. But not before she vacuumed all the floors. I suspect if time had been a little shorter, she might not have vacuumed, but I can't say for sure. And that tells you everything you need to know about, and why I so love, my Shelley.

I'm packing clothes to last through the weekend tonight to take with me to the hospital. I expect to be able to come home tomorrow night before spending the next 2 or 3 days at the hospital, but can't be sure. Brought in all the stuff from outside (lawn furniture, potted plants, bird baths) and put it in the garage. We had a lot of stuff outside, I decided!

I am hoping to be able to blog throughout the storm, as several administration computers will be running off the generator even in power goes down, which we all expect. We'll see how that goes.

Rita

For the second time this summer, my family is evacuating in the anticipation of a hurricane. It is an understatement to say that this time is a little different.

I found out yesterday that the hospital has activated its disaster plan for weather effective immediately. We are asking all staff who are able to come to work Friday to bring with them clothes and personal items to last three days. We are providing childcare in the hospital for those employees who need to bring their families with them. We are accepting patients from the Triumph Hospitals closer to the Gulf of Mexico, specifically Clearlake, Victoria, Baytown, Channelview and possibly Downtown. We are licensed for 115 patient beds, but may see 125 patients or more in the hospital this weekend. In addition to patients, we are anticipating dozens of staff and dozens of patients' family members and dozens of staff's family members in the hospital over the weekend.

We do not expect to be in store for major storm damage. The storm surge does not threaten this hospital, but does potentially threaten the ones I mentioned. We anticipate a loss of electricity and localized flooding or tree damage/debris which will make travel to and from the hospital too dangerous or perhaps impossible for our staff.

I was just notified that there is a Code Yellow in place, which means no employees may leave the hospital unless cleared through the command center. Patients are being transferred starting this morning, because the local authorities are expected to commandeer all ambulances later today for evacuations.

I want to stress that I am not expecting to be in any danger from Hurricane Rita. I am going to be spending the weekend at the hospital coordinating staffing and supervising the care for staff's family members. Since I have to be at the hospital this weekend, Shelley and I agreed last night that she and the boys should head north. We don't want either of the boys to have a childhood memory involving sitting in the dark for hours while 100 mph winds rage outside. She hasn't decided yet whether she's headed to Tyler or Fort Worth. She has her cell phone with her if you need to reach her. They are leaving early this afternoon to avoid getting stuck in heavy traffic with everyone who is having to leave Galveston. We packed precious baby clothes and pictures in the car last night just to be extra cautious.

Saying goodbye to them all this morning was really tough. Braden has no idea what's going on, which is exactly the way we want it. He's getting to go bye-bye to visit aunts or grandparents and that's all good. Austin was in tears when I hugged and kissed him goodbye. I'll keep everyone updated as I can.

Hey Amy - You Want Duh Wrestle?!

Seeing post-facelift Kenny Rogers on TV day and night promoting "TimeLife.com Superstars of Country" has been fun, because it reminds me of the concerts we went to when I was a wee lad: Barry Manilow, John Denver, Kenny Rogers, B.J. Thomas, Amy Grant. Amy Grant was still just a teenager when I saw her in concert (with Dayna Bridges - aaaaaagh!), and I may still carry guilt from the dark, powerful, adolescent longing I felt for her even while she was singing contemporary Christian songs on stage! John Denver put on the best concert of the group, though I can remember thinking during the Barry Manilow concert "every single song he's singing has been a #1 smash hit in the last 12 months - how is that possible?"

Of course, I loved seeing KISS live the best, even though Dad nearly got into a fight with some stoned loser at the Lloyd Noble Arena which would have ruined everything. At some point I remember him telling me that "all the songs sound the same", which was asinine, of course. Until I had the opportunity to hear those songs years later, when they - needless to say - all sounded the same. I've become my father. Hoo boy...

Father to whom, you might ask? Why, to a 3-year-old whose favorite expressions right now include "zip it", "dat a bad choice", "huh-duh-doc-doc" (helicopter), "dat shark, duh cut you leave baaaaad boo boo, bad boo boo" (always 2 bad boo boos, never just 1) and various obsessive descriptions of "fie hi-dents" and "fie eh-sting-sirs" EVERY TIME we see a fire hydrant or fire extinguisher.

It may sound weird, but one of my favorite B-things right now is how he goes to the bathroom. He stands in front of the toilet/urinal, pulls his pants and underwear all the way down to his ankles, lifts the bottom of his shirt and tucks it under his chin, pushes his belly way out, and then proceeds to pee wildly from left to right, top to bottom all over the inside of the bowl. I think it's the holding his shirt under his chin that tickles me most, though that belly sticking out business is cute, too.

We spent this past weekend alone together while Sheila and Austin went to Ft. Worth to get stuff they had all planned on selling in a father/daughters garage sale but which will be donated to the folks from Louisiana instead. Braden spent much of the weekend asking "da-ee you want duh wrestle?" The answer was almost always 'yes', so we spent a rainy Saturday rough-housing in the living room.

Sheila got her hair professionally done while Austin ran around downtown Ft. Worth with his Uncle Jeff Z. Austin was able to get in a few digs about the Astros sweeping the Phillies last week, (Jeff's team) pushing them out of wild card contention, for now. He also took several photos of Jim and Sheryl's new house in Ft. Worth (the Pecan Plantation is home no longer). Curiously, many of the shots include extremely close-up self-portraits of Austin making bizarre expressions. (Note to self: monitor the 10-year-old when he asks to borrow the camera.)

Floam!

It is definitely too early to tell if this is a flash in the pan or the real deal, but Grand 8 Marketplace is definitely moving the Floam now. I don't want to jinx them, but the commission the parents stand to earn this month with this breakout product would be payable in a check around the middle of November, just in time for Christmas. How cool would that be?

To see how they are doing it, go to Google and search for "Floam". They actually have two listings in the top seven as of tonight. It could all change tomorrow, at Google's discretion, but so far so good.

From Moonwalks to Boardwalks

Here is a group of pictures of us at NASA and the Kemah Boardwalk taken over the course of a very busy Sunday. If we look tired, sweaty, ragged or disheveled in any other way, it is due to the nature of trying to corral very busy young children all day. That's all.

We got to the Johnson NASA Space Center shortly after they opened at 10:30, and spent most of the day checking out all the interesting stuff they have on display there, from the Apollo days up to Space Shuttle information. Took an informative tram ride to the area where they train astronauts on a full-size mock version of International Space Station modules - very nice. The highlight was the hands on climbing, handling, seeing, hearing activity area, where the kids all roamed freely (under supervision) for at least an hour, probably more like 90 minutes. They didn't want to leave, either - it was the parents who were worn out by it all.

The smallest boys finally took a nap later in the afternoon, and we wound down at NASA around 4:30. Drove 15 minutes to Kemah Boardwalk, were we had a nice mexican food dinner and enjoyed the amusements, rides and ocean views until 8:30ish. The drive back to Cypress was long and sleepy, but that didn't keep Labor Day from starting around 6:30am for the "Brothers Dervish". We all look forward to the day when they are old enough to know what "share" means and want to do it on occasion with each other. For now, it may be best that there are several hundred miles separating them!

Click on the image for a larger view of us all!

PS. Since we just got a digital camera, look for more and more images on the blog, for better or worse...

The Smallness of Man

Looking again at my post from Monday, the tone seems too jovial - almost flippant - in the face of a terrible disaster. In my defense, at the time of my post the full extent of the destruction was not yet known. I did not mean to be disrespectful.

It seems like a long time ago since that post - the sights I've seen and the stories I've read since then are horrifying. This natural disaster is of a scale I am not able to grasp fully.

But it is the breakdown in the social order that is truly terrifying. I don't believe there is anything wrong with taking water, food, diapers or medicine in the face of the deprivation the poorest citizens in New Orleans now face. But the wanton looting of electronics, jewelry, clothes; the violence committed against the first line responders (police, guardsmen, paramedics); commandeering vans from nursing homes; breaking into hospitals - why? It's disgusting, horrible behavior.

And it really bothers me that every racist in America (and beyond) is looking at the images from New Orleans and saying 'see there - those n***ers are savages'. I actually know of someone who observed 'you can take the people out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the people'. That type of behavior is disgusting, too.

There will be plenty of time to evaluate the lessons from Hurricane Katrina, and there are millions of reasons to try to figure out how to be better prepared. Impressions just a few days into this tragedy include the smallness of man in the face of nature, and the importance of public officials respecting those they represent, honestly committing all their personal resources to their work. Public service should be a humbling privilege, not a narcissistic exercise in self-promotion.

The poor, suffering people of New Orleans appear to have been failed by those elected to represent them. Shame on them.