Columnist Susan Snyder: Charity more powerful than blame

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005 | 8:18 a.m.

The blame game is really nasty now.

Politicians who failed to act and people who think they live in safer places blame New Orleans' poor for not getting out, and for living below sea level in the first place.

It's odd how people who live on known earthquake faults, in known flood plains, in known avalanche or tornado corridors, in the middle of forests susceptible to fire and in deserts that don't have the water to sustain them, think living along the Southeast coasts is worse.

It happened after Andrew in 1992. Everyone asked why we stupid Floridians continued living in Florida.

People who never have had to decide what two or three items to take or leave a pet behind or leave a home they've occupied for 70 years certainly have an easy time taking a hard view. They don't seem to understand that for some people -- especially older ones -- starting over is worse than dying.

We all play the blame game when disasters happen in the United States. (No one blamed tsunami victims for living next to the ocean.)

However, as we finger-wag with one hand we typically give with the other. Driven by survivor's guilt or human compassion or a little of both, people are opening their wallets, homes and communities for the benefit of thousands of Louisiana and Mississippi residents who may never be able to go home.

Raffles and counter-top donation jars have popped up all over town.

Drag racers competing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the Labor Day weekend raised nearly $2,100 that is to be split between a Louisiana driver and one from Mississippi, both of whom lost everything in the storm.

Stylists at Studio 302, 2235 E. Flamingo Road, will donate their time and talent for a "cut-a-thon" starting at noon Sunday. They will charge $25 for a shampoo and haircut and donate all of it to the American Red Cross.

Sonya Johnson, a stylist, doesn't know anyone in New Orleans but says television coverage gave "a heavy feeling in my heart."

"I'll cut hair until midnight, if I have to," Johnson said in an e-mail Tuesday.

Sharon Sneed, principal at Fay Galloway Elementary School, said her students are each donating $1 in hopes of collecting $1,000 to help children affected by the hurricane. Some students are raising more, such as one who baked chocolate chip cookies, which his dad took to work and sold for 50 cents a bag. (They were very good.)

The students made a similar effort for tsunami relief last winter, Sneed said. On Friday they will commemorate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with "Patriot Day" projects that include writing letters to U.S. troops in Iraq.

Some students' parents are serving in Iraq or along the Gulf Coast. Acknowledging those events through discussion and school projects helps children cope.

"It's news. It's real, and this is history," Sneed said.

Galloway's faculty will decide where to donate the hurricane money. They are considering Habitat for Humanity, which will help families rebuild homes in the stricken communities.

"We're just a little elementary school," Sneed said.

But even a little giving goes a long way -- further, sometimes, than a heap of blame.