As WW II Veterans "watched from above," we cleaned a cemetery

I never knew Daniel McCray, never heard of D.A. Bradford, have no clue who John Henry Bradley was, and have zero idea at all about Deacon Joe Battiest, except to know that they were some of the millions of nameless, largely forgotten people who people who helped the Allies win WW II.

Similarly, you probably never heard of Eliza Kennedy, Robert Titzler, Carrie James, Maryanne Kiley, Samuel Lawrence, Sean Ruane, Miquel Boland, or the thousands of other nameless present day volunteers. They are some of the largely unknown individuals who are helping the Gulf coast region win its battle against Katrina.

Today the two groups met. No not in person. The former group has all passed from this world. You see, I learned their names while helping to clean the the Biloxi National Cemetery. But, if there is a heaven the McCray, Bradford, and Bradley crew looked down on their final resting place in and were really proud of what was going on.

On what was originally going to be an easy recovery day, the Handson crew raked, hauled, piled, kicked, pushed, and shoveled untold tons of branches, leaves, and dirt and turned the cemetery that had taken much of the brunt of Katrina back into a neat, peaceful place where friends and family can reflect back on the wonderful lives that the deceased had lived.

It is hard to know what the impact of anyone’s actions is. For all I know, the late Mr. Bradford or Mr. Bradley may have saved thousands of lives by preventing two transport ships from sinking, or single-handedly defeated a company of Axis troops. Oh sure I could google their names, but even Google does not know what they really did. Why? Because often what comes from what we do, is unknown to all. Or put another way, even the doer of an action often does not know what the outcome is of the action.

This has been described much more gracefully than I could ever attempt. For instance, my favorite version of this idea is, ironically enough given why we are all here in Mississippi, the idea of that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings somewhere plains of Africa could, by disturbing atmospheric conditions just enough, cause a hurricane to hit the shores of North America. Small things mean things. And what the end result of a seemingly small action is, we may never know.

I tell you this because of a phone call back at Handson’s HQ. I called a friend to wish her Happy New Year and to brag about how much good was accomplished. She was unimpressed. Oh, she tried to be polite, but you could tell. Her tone of voice gave it away. While her words said “oh that’s nice,” her tone was saying “gee, how minor is that? You cleaned a cemetery. Big deal. Is anyone out of a FEMA trailer because of that? Is anyone breathing better air as a result of that? No, you just cleaned a cemetery, oh sure it may have been a lot of work, but it was a cemetery. Nothing more.”

I was polite and did not say anything nasty in reply. Indeed, I politely turned the other cheek and invited her to join us on our March trip. Thinking that then might she come to understand what it means to clean a cemetery, a park, a street, or a neighborhood. To know what it means to give a blanket to a cold survivor living in tent, to talk to a woman living in a FEMA trailer but who is afraid that she may have to give up her trailer because she has three dogs in the trailer, or to say hello to a family living on their front porch.

I can tell you that cleaning the cemetery made a physical difference. I can tell you that it made the cemetery look much better. I can tell you that it is again the peaceful refuge for both the living and the dead that it was intended to be.

But what I do not know, what none of us will ever know, are the long-run consequences of cleaning the cemetery. Did seeing a group of people from all over America clean the cemetery convince a depressed survivor to give it life another chance? Maybe.

Did the life of a widow get just enough better that she decided to not give up and move away? A move which had it occurred would have forced the store down the block to go out of business, which in turn would have led to higher unemployment, despair, and turmoil? Maybe.

Were the hours of back breaking work that were needed to clean the cemetery worth “maybes”? Absolutely. And I am sure the heros from past generations would agree. Today they were smiling.


Short Bits

* I had two really fun runs today. The AM run was an uneventful run through a fog, while the PM run was through some rain with Miguel, John, David, Bill, Chuck, and Beth. It was fun.
* Many of the dogs at the Humane Society were shipped out to an animal shelter in Maine. There was a new puppy however. VERY sad. A dog had apparently gotten away with his chain and collar still attached. The collar had to be surgically removed. It was not a pretty sight, but the long term prognosis is excellent and he will make someone a very good dog!
* The turnover is obviously very high here. Today we are losing a group from Davidson, but gained a group from Alfred State.
*Jen also leaves tomorrow, but before she does, I plan on introducing her to interior work as we will help gut a house.
* Prior to house gutting, I will be taking “a crew” out to the Humane Society where before it opens we will be cleaning up the walking area (there is some glass and aluminum on the walk way which I always hate have the dogs walk on.
* last night we left boots under my car. Oops! The fog was so dense that this AM I had to pour the water from the boots! And they were UNDER the car!
* Dinner was a BBQ. There was chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs. The vegetarians had tofu ka-bobs. They were really good!