Go read “this L.A. Times report”:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-children5sep05,0,113027.story?coll=la-home-headlines about seven children — mostly toddlers, the eldest, six years old — who were lost and found in New Orleans these last few days.
In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.
They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.
The story of how they got there, and what happened next, is just remarkable. There are a lot of lessons you might draw from it — organizational failures and successes, the appalling choices that people sometimes have to make, courage in unexpected places, and how important it can be be for people to pay attention and make an effort. It’s also a reminder of something else, something I can’t quite articulate properly. Events like Katrina breed chaos, and that leads to long chains of contingencies, to accidents piled upon accidents, sometimes lucky sometimes not. We come across people in the middle of such chains of events. In most cases, their situation will not conform to some tidy morality tale. It might _look_ like it does, but that’s because we like to tell stories about how people got what they deserved. What you are really seeing — as in the case of these seven children — may turn out to be another thing altogether, or the accidental byproduct of many things.
{ 6 comments }
SqueakyRat 09.05.05 at 5:38 pm
So — the kids were evacuated by helicopter and then simply abandoned at an “evacuation point”?
Kieran Healy 09.05.05 at 5:58 pm
Yes. And the chopper didn’t return as promised for their parents. Probably something else happened — the pilot spotted someone in desperate need on a roof or what have you — and the return trip for the parents got forgotten.
A. G. Rud 09.05.05 at 6:11 pm
“When my kids were little I used to lose them in Target, so it’s not hard for me to believe,” said Nanette White, press secretary for Louisiana’s Department of Social Services. “Sometimes little kids just wander off. They’re there one second and you blink and they’re gone.”
This brings back vivid memories when our (only child) daughter was young, she is now almost 20, and we still worry about such! We can’t sleep some nights. Nothing unusual for parents, but certainly searing. But losing her in a store is harrowing, I remember the panic and the guilt and the relief. I can’t imagine what families are going through in New Orleans and surroundings.
Thomas 09.06.05 at 8:55 am
I was a bit amused by this:
“In most cases, their situation will not conform to some tidy morality tale. It might look like it does, but that’s because we like to tell stories about how people got what they deserved. What you are really seeing—as in the case of these seven children—may turn out to be another thing altogether, or the accidental byproduct of many things.”
Have we seen anything but tidy morality tales from Kieran “the poor man’s Mark Steyn” Healy this past week?
Laurie 09.06.05 at 4:01 pm
What an amazing little hero. There are no words to describe how wonderful this little man is. My God bless him and protect him and his little band of followers all the days of their lives.
Rose 09.07.05 at 8:18 pm
A smart brave litle boy like that is the result of excellent and concerned parenting. Shame on George Bush for abandoning these people as if they weren’t worthwhile to save.
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