CNN has been on pretty much non-stop for the past week at our house. I don’t have words for what has happened to New Orleans, which has always been one of my dearest cities. Along with the rest of the world, I’m heartened to see so many states pitching in to help the folks from NOLA. One thing I can speak to is what Arkansas is doing, since I don’t see it mentioned so much on the news. Fort Chaffee has taken in 9,000 evacuees. So many people my parents know have taken in family and friends without any place to go. As Mister Husband noted earlier, tiny Leflore County, just across the Oklahoma border, has a median annual income of less than $14,000. Several days ago, they had already raised nearly $350,000 in aid and families were cooking food to take down to the Fort.

I’m proud to be from that part of the country, where people can usually be counted on to respond this way. And I’m really proud of my dad, who has been hiring workers from New Orleans this week. He too can usually be counted on for such a practical response.