Bailey Singletary is a junior majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].At last weekend’s football game, President Foglesong gave a speech via the big screen, thanking all the selfless veterans and current soldiers who have fought in the wars that have kept our country the way it is.
This was very appropriate for Veterans’ Day, but it made me start thinking about all the people who should be thanked regularly and not just because of the Thanksgiving season.
But with Thanksgiving coming up, I know that I will have to travel to Baton Rouge to visit my mom’s side of the family. Even though I always enjoy going to my great aunt’s house because I get to be around all my crazy Cajun cousins, it’s been different the past few years because we all know that while we’re enjoying ourselves so much, there are still so many people south of us who are spending Thanksgiving Day rebuilding their lives from Hurricane Katrina.
People who weren’t affected by Katrina, including myself, sometimes forget that even though the damage isn’t splashed across the news anymore like it was for months after the tragedy, it still exists.
Last Thanksgiving, I and a few cousins drove down to New Orleans for a night just to get away from the family. While we were walking around Jackson Square, we saw an older couple with a food kiosk, giving out food to those who needed it, whether it was locals or volunteers.
The more we walked around, the more we realized there were tons of people helping out in any way they could. We saw trucks with wood and building supplies in the beds heading down to destroyed areas, and we talked to a few Tulane students who weren’t going home so they could stay and help out in the Ninth Ward.
I don’t label myself as a selfish person, but I’m so used to my family traditions of watching the Macy’s Day Parade and football games, I would find it hard to offer my time away from family on Thanksgiving Day and go to New Orleans or the Mississippi Coast to help people from dusk to dawn.
I greatly appreciate each and every person that has been helping rebuild post-Katrina damaged areas in any way they possibly can, but when I see someone helping on a holiday when they could be at home with family, it makes me realize that there are truly selfless people in this world.
So whether you thank war veterans to a stadium full of people or your neighbor who is helping rebuild a house in Biloxi instead of going to the Egg Bowl, it should be done. Thanking someone for helping out in a situation where you aren’t directly involved isn’t cheesy or cliché, although the cynical people of the world would have you think that. It shows that you actually care about someone other than yourself.
Even if you aren’t the one helping out, telling others you’re glad they are doing so is helping out, because it’s human nature to want to be appreciated.