The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

We plant our gardens, wash our windows, get our animals ready for summer. We rotate our canned goods, plan summer events, dream of sitting out with our neighbors and chatting while the warm breeze runs through and the sun calls it a day.

Now imagine that it’s all gone -- all of it. We are now sitting, clutching our pets on our driveway, with everything we own destroyed, a pile of rubble a monument to what was. Our neighbors have no more than we do, they are in the same position. There is not a way to make dinner, to bathe, to communicate, to lay our children down for sleep. Our purses are gone, cars destroyed. We no longer own a change of clothing. This is what our Brothers and Sisters in Oklahoma are facing today. What will they do? They will get up, dust themselves off, minister to the injured and hungry and make plans to rebuild their lives. They will work until they drop, they will give everything they have, they will open their homes to strangers and neighbors.

We are not different in the Coulee! We are great people with good hearts and strong ethics. We need not wait for a tragedy to realize this and to act accordingly. Forget about who made you mad 10 years ago, who fell short of your expectations, who hurt you. Realize that the one standing next to you is most likely the first one you will see in times of trouble and be grateful and be neighborly. Do it in honor of the Fine People of Oklahoma who are being an example to us all.

Glo Carroll

Coulee Dam