Well, things aren’t quite back to normal — there are still a few thousand people living their daily lives in a shelter not far from here and they still need a hand. Worse, still, they are likely to continue living there for another seven or eight weeks. many, many more are continuing their daily lives living in shelters across the nation.

The latest figures showing how much Americans have donated to help their fellow Americans is staggering: over $858 million dollars. And every dollar matters.

As bad as this situation is for many, many people along the gulf coast, it serves as an example of how most people are decent and caring to one another. The news media — as is their bent — continues to focus mainly on the negative aspects of things, but where the rubber meets the road, it’s still one person extending a hand to another without any other reason than to be able to help another person who needs it.

As I told my friend Jim Sisti on the phone this morning, my faith is humanity is greater today then it was three weeks ago.