Harvey Unites Us as Americans

I watch the rains come on the news broadcasts.

I watched reporters braving the wind.

I saw the pictures of the boarded-up stores and businesses.

Then, like the rest of the country, I listened to the weather reports as Harvey was making landfall.

Later we saw the waters rising and the people who stayed trying to escape.

Then America happened.

From everywhere, even hundreds of miles away, pickup trucks pulling boats converged to the area.

The Red Cross, supported by our donations, started opening shelters.

Convoys of donated food and basic supplies started rolling into the state.

The way became clear for the news people to get in and report.

We saw the rescues by boats, trucks, and helicopters.

It wasn’t limited to law enforcement or military. We saw neighbors helping neighbors. There were strangers helping strangers.

White people helping Hispanics.

Black people carrying out elderly white people.

No one cared about race. No one cared about political ideology. No one cared about sex or sexual orientation.

We forgot how the media has been categorizing and dividing us. The only thing that mattered was saving lives and getting people the help they needed.

There were no counts on how many transgender people took part in the effort. There were no statistics on how many more rescuers needed to be black to get the appropriate racial representation of the country. There was no tally of how many Christians helped how many Muslims. Nobody was wearing any hats resembling a female body part.

When President Trump landed and spoke to the community, he brought the full effort of America with him. It wasn’t about him as some in the media accused. It wasn’t about anything other than Americans helping fellow Americans. Private donations. Government support that is funded by American tax dollars. Corporate contributions. Private and religious organizations. The support came from all corners of our beautiful Republic.

I hope that these events were not lost on the American people who have been bombarded with anti-American propaganda calling us all racists, xenophobes, homophobes or whatever other convenient accusation that is leveled at us by special interests.

Here’s what I didn’t see:

The truckloads of supplies provided by the media organizations.

The major contributions of needed supplies by Antifa.

The truckloads of rescuers by Black Lives Matter.

Hurricane Harvey killed. Hurricane Harvey destroyed.

However, Hurricane Harvey provided yet another opportunity of real Americans to show that real America still exists. Even though in this time of crisis, some in the media still try to push their hateful agendas, most of us know better. Stop believing America is composed of what actually is a miniscule amount of dividers.

Our country and the people in it, showed their true character.

We are Americans. We did what Americans do-take care of each other.

John Cylc is an eight year U.S. Army veteran. He is also a contributor to LifeZette. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.