A gentle breeze

Jose, one of my friends and colleagues, is a nominee for Do Good Citizen of the Year. And so are hundreds of other volunteers who have collectively spent thousands of hours over the last week helping hurricane victims in North and South Carolina.

In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s terrible destruction, ordinary people have risen to extraordinary heights of good.

Jose told several of us in a Zoom call about one man who took that “extraordinary heights” phrase literally. He flies his own helicopter, and he volunteered it to help. So did many other private helicopter pilots and small plane pilots.

The pilot Jose told us about, Jordan Seidhom, woke up last Saturday to a Facebook post about a family stranded on a mountain in North Carolina. He and his copilot, his teenage son, took off to help.

They dropped off supplies they’d brought, then spent the day helping. They rescued four people, all the while coordinating with local officials. (Jordan is a volunteer firefighter and former Sheriff’s Deputy.)

They decided to stay and help the next day, and as they were flying the son spotted a woman waving for help. You can read the whole story here, but they were able to rescue the woman and were planning to go back for her husband.

But in the midst of many officers and firefighters doing good, one local fire official told the pilot to stand down and leave. He said if Jordan went up the mountain to pick up his son and the victim, he would be arrested.

And the pilot said…

After a lot of discussion, Jordan decided to go get his son and head home, which is what he did. He had to explain to the other victim why he couldn’t take him to safety.

His efforts to do good had been cut short by the long arm of the law.

Ultimately, a day or two later, a call went out for helicopters, and many — including the father and son — responded.

The Babylon Bee (a satire web site), picked up on that story and used it to poke fun at the Federal Emergency Management Association. The Bee quickly published an article titled FEMA Arrests Noah for Running Unauthorized Flood Rescue Operation.

While many were taking FEMA to task, the New York Times was blaming Republican lawmakers in North Carolina for something. I couldn’t read the article, only the headline, but the Times seemed to think those conservatives had failed to protect their people properly.

Any time there are problems, there are always people willing to play the blame game.

At the same time, my friend Jose and many, many others, were too busy helping to be much concerned about assigning blame. Jose told us about a golf course in that area, just a little public place. It was now gone. He couldn’t find words to express the power of the storm or describe the damage. (That downed tree in the picture above was near his home.)

But for seven hours the day before we talked, he had been operating a fork-lift. I was surprised that he knew how. He said, “It was one of the many jobs I had when I was playing minor league baseball.” That skill served many people well after Helene.

People doing good

A fork-lift driver, moving supplies that had arrived in a staging area, was just one job that needed doing. And lots of people, many from other states, showed up to do them. A lot of those were firefighters and law enforcement officers and other government employees. They were all doing good.

Wouldn’t it be great if all of our government officials had that same mindset? I think most of them do. The vast majority of public servants in the Carolinas, and I’m convinced everywhere in the country, are exactly that: Men and women who serve the public.

Many who have suffered — and there has been a great deal of suffering because of Helene and Milton — will turn to the government for assistance. That is in fact a big part of the purpose of FEMA. But sometimes there are bureaucrats in agencies, like that firefighter who threatened to arrest the helicopter pilot.

They are the exception, not the rule. Still, it is people who do good, not government agencies.

Here’s what I mean. People were created to be in community, to help, to serve, and, when the time calls for it, to be helped and be served. Most government agencies are not created for those things. Bureaucracies make things unwieldy, less nimble, less flexible. Rules are often useful, but they cannot anticipate the challenges of a natural disaster.

Albert Einstein said, “A perfection of means and a confusion of aims seems to be our main problem.”

The people helping in the wake of the storms had no confusion of aims, and the means did not have to fit in a box. That’s why people doing good is a far better answer than some fire official saying to a volunteer, “Step aside, this is my operation.”

Bring a gift

A few years ago, a pastor from a church I know in the Phoenix area moved to Asheville, NC. He started working with a church there, and of course stayed in touch with many in his old church.

Helene completely destroyed his new church, taking it beyond their ability to rebuild and recover.

Unbeknownst to him, his old church took up an offering. People were generous, and the church added more to the amount. This coming week, the pastor from AZ will visit the pastor in NC and bring a gift.

That is exactly what you do every time you do good. It doesn’t have to be money. A kind word, a door held open, helping a friend — or even a stranger. All of those are “doing good,” and every one is a gift.

May your gifts of good be many, and may they be a gentle breeze that blows away the hurricanes of life.

Do good. It’s in you.