Hugh Hewitt on True Heroes

His opening says it all: "All I and a thousand other bloggers are asking you to do is give money. Here's one of thousands of examples of genuine courage and sacrifice..." Get the story here. Jason Peterson flew into NO and helicoptered to a children's hospital in order to help move four neonatal patience to a children's hospital in Alabama. This is what he saw when he got there:

Oschner's heliport was under water and we landed on the parking deck. With equipment in hand, we walked down 6 flights of stairs, (all of the elevators are out of service), through the hospital where there is caution tape and leaks all throughout the hallways. We then walked up two flights of stairs to the unit where they are now caring for the babies. Luckily it was now the 2nd floor instead of originally the 10th floor. All of the windows were blown out of the 10th floor by the storm. On the flight into the airport all you could see is destruction and water everywhere, I thought "Truly a saddening sight", then with the flight on the helicopter it got worse. We were much closer at that point and could see more destruction, more water, looters, Police/ EMS, and uncontrolled fires all over.

Upon entering the make-shift nursery, the first two staff were onphones crying their eyes out talking to someone on the other end trying to cope. All of the staff in the unit were overjoyed to see that someone had come to help. They had requested help from all over but they told us we were the only ones to show up today. They thought we were coming for only one patient and when we told them we had the resources to transport 4, they were shocked to say the least. Then we said maybe we can help more tomorrow and to our surprise they all were even more excited that we would come back again to help. The nurse practioner in the unit pulled me aside and asked me "How bad is it out there looking from the air? I mean really, is it as bad as they say?" With tears running down her face and tears in my eyes I said "Yes Ma'am it is, maybe worse and my heart is broken for all of you down here". With that she had to walk away.

Someone said that what 9/11 showed America about fire-fighters, the NO aftermath shows America about our Hospital/Medical staff: transporters to surgeons. These people literally put themselves in harms way to protect the most vulnerable among us all. God bless each and every one of them, especially Jason Peterson.

The little we can do we must do. our little, when united with the little of us all, becomes a formidable force for good. We provide the fuel for the fires of heroism. The American Red Cross, Catholic Charities and all of the other hard-working disaster relief agencies need our support so they can support the most vulnerable. Nature and inadequite human response has destroyed far too many New Orleaneans' homes and lives. Help America's heroes help them. Give today.