Hurricane Harvey Reveals the Real Face of America

It sometimes takes a disaster to bring out the good in others. Hurricane Harvey was one of the worst flooding in recorded history to have hit Houston and the surrounding region. Yet, it revealed one of the best aspects of the American soul.

ABC News reported on this aspect with this title: Hurricane Harvey: Heroes rise to the occasion to help rescue those stranded by storm. The video told of a family who has taken in 20 strangers in their home.

Fox News reported on this aspect in its article Hurricane Harvey: Ordinary American heroes inspire. The video in the online article showed pictures and videos of regular folks who helped each other out of the dangerous waters.

The New York Times talked about it in its online article Moments of Hope and Inspiration Rise Above the Chaos of Harvey. It was illustrated by a picture of a man rescuing a small boy with his paddle boat amid torrential rain. One video in the article was subtitled “Stories of Heroism.” It documented stories after stories recorded by social media of random acts of charity amid the life-threatening storm. Daniel Victor of the New York Times wrote; “More than any hurricane before it, Harvey struck at a time when almost anyone can document their own experiences through social media. The world has been able to see some of the dramatic rescues and acts of altruism that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.”

Houstonia Magazine online referred to this aspect with its article, The Heroes of Hurricane Harvey. The article included a slideshow of pictures of one act of heroism after another. It included the famous picture of a Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy collapsed from fatigue after a long day rescuing people in high water areas. He was shown sleeping on the floor, propped up against a table with a bag of charcoal as an arm rest with his waders still on. We may presume he didn’t have time to take his waders off between quick naps.

An interesting thing about these individuals, the news reported on, is that many were not government officials. Rock Long, FEMA Administrator in an ABC News interview said; “The way emergency management work is that all disasters begin and end in the local levels. They decide the mission priorities. They work them up through the state. Our support is designed to help the state to achieve those goals.” Government institutions can only do so much. Much of the grunt work was done by charitable individuals whose only reward was most likely a “Thank you” and many times paid for the cost of their effort at their own expense.

The Houstonia Magazine report also included a picture of a long line of trucks hauling fishing boats to the flooded areas. This is the famous Cajun Navy, a community-organized group of Louisianians which helped the evacuation of thousands during Katrina, in 2005, and subsequent floodings in Louisiana in 2016. They decided to regroup and drove out to Texas at their own expense in order to help out.

The last event that gripped the news was about the clash in Charlottesville. The mass media narrative was that you are either against slavery and therefore with the liberal antifa movement, or, you are in favor of slavery and therefore with the nationalist/supremacist movement. The honest, upright, God-fearing Americans rejected this false dilemma. Regular Americans refused to be pigeon-holed with the alt-left or the alt-right. Instead as Mr. John Horvat points out in his article, The Growing Tyranny of Culture-killers, Americans want an organic moral solution.

Hurricane Harvey dominated the news last week and continues to do so this week but it reveals the spirit of the average American that Mr. Horvat spoke about in his book Return To Order. It is a spirit imbibed with honor, charity, faith, concern for others and a deep-rooted sense of sacrifice, which are the virtues that give birth to acts of heroism. The spirit of heroism is the aspect of the American soul Hurricane Harvey revealed.

It is a great wonder that this spirit still exists in a country full of comfort, pleasure and entertainment. Where does this willingness to sacrifice for others come from? It does not come from the mainstream media or Hollywood. It does not come from schools or pop culture. Yet, it must come from somewhere. The root of the spirit of heroism, this sense of sacrifice undoubtedly comes from a profound influence in the soul of man of Our Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. Though non-Christians are capable of sacrificing as well, no other historical event has marked the hearts, minds and souls of the Western and Christian man more than the death of Jesus Christ, who taught; "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

George Alfred Henty, an English author who wrote approximately 144 books and was known, in his time, as "The Prince of Story-Tellers," says the following about the heroism: “To be a true hero you must be a true Christian. To sum up then, heroism is largely based on two qualities- truthfulness and unselfishness, a readiness to put one's own pleasures aside for that of others, to be courteous to all, kind to those younger than yourself, helpful to your parents, even if helpfulness demands some slight sacrifice of your own pleasure. . .you must remember that these two qualities are the signs of Christian heroism.”

This aspect of the American soul, and hopefully, of the souls of all the nations touched by the profound influence of Christianity, is very refreshing to see. Each act of heroism we read fills our souls with inspiration. Every act of sacrifice reported leaves us with an admiration so great, we wish we had been there helping. Disasters will come and go. It will be years before Houston can recover from the damage wrought by Harvey. However, one thing can give us consolation. The real face of America became apparent. And, it is not the ugly face of the antifa or supremacists. It is not the selfish face of the pop-culture, whose only interest is pleasure and comfort. It is the benevolent face of “heroes” and we can be proud of it.