My fellow students, I have a plea. Have you watched TV since Hurricane Katrina made landfall? Have you seen the newspapers? Our gulf states look like a war-torn country, under feet of water that are the result of broken levees and torrential downpours. In an instant, lives were destroyed. Families separated, houses demolished, memories swept down a river that had been a street where children played and families gathered.Our daily complaints have just paled. No matter how much homework you have, the amount of studying, the lack of sleep – that is nothing. Thousands of casualties are expected in New Orleans. President Bush flew over the area for about thirty-five minutes to survey the destruction. Upon viewing the scene, he remarked that ‘It is devastating.’ One news station drew a comparison between the President’s fly over of the southern states and his fly over of the post-9/11 disaster site. The memories were very similar. Bowling Green, this is nature’s terrorism, and the scariest thing is, it cannot be stopped. The pictures on TV can’t begin to describe what these people are living through. Louisiana emergency officials have reported that the water is beginning to recede – but in its wake are the corpses of both humans and animals. Traveling by car is virtually impossible, and many are making their way around in boats. They are sharing the waters with sharks and alligators. People are starving, and there is no fresh food or water; the water supply is contaminated because sewers are overflowing. The heat is oppressive and besides having nowhere to go, hundreds of thousands are also stuck in their homes, in their attics, as a result of making their way upstairs to escape the rising waters. The only way out is to make a hole in the roof. There is no telephone service, and it’s expected to be two or three months before the New Orleans area has their power back.Heart-wrenching pictures of those who have lost everything, holding pictures of loved ones they have yet to be reunited with, are everywhere. There is the story of a man who should have taken one of the evacuation buses to the Astrodome in Houston, but would not leave without finding his wife. Where do you begin to clean up a catastrophe like this? The Department of Defense is sending fifty helicopters and eight ships, as well as water and tarps, to begin the recovery. Foreign countries, such as Canada, Germany, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia are coming to our aid. So what can we do? What MUST we do? We are going to get together and set up tables to take donations of money that can be sent to FEMA, the Salvation Army or the Red Cross. We are Americans, and we have always taken care of everyone else. Now it is time to take care of our own. Remember how we donated in droves for the Tsunami effort? Let’s double it now, our own have been affected this time, and they are in such desperate need of our help. Most of us can’t take time off to fly down and help, but we can make a change from right here on campus. As you celebrate Labor Day weekend, think of those who won’t be celebrating, but who will be trying to salvage any semblance of their lives that previously existed. Ask for help among your friends, families, and communities.Think of this as a reason to do something good for yourself in order to help our desperately needy and crisis-ridden brethren in the south. Give up smoking or drinking, even just for a month; forget about junk food and put off buying those to-die-for shoes you have been eyeing. Contribute that extra money to the cause. Most of the people you are seeing on TV do not have shoes, let alone their family members. All they have is the clothes on their backs. We are so caught up in our own lives and little nuances. We cannot watch these scenes of devastation on TV and be glad it was not us, because tragedy can happen at any time. We have to help these people as we would want to be helped if we were the victims. As responsible US citizens and the next generation of leaders that have the privilege of going to college, we owe it to our country and our fellow citizens to make sacrifices and to help.So make a difference, BG. We have to do this, and we will do this. Just remember those pictures on TV are of human beings.