Time to Respond

By Ashley Bean Thornton

I stand in awe of the first responders.  Here’s one story I heard:  Having seen the fire and fearing the worst, a young mother, 15-month old baby in her arms, ran into her house to grab shoes and a diaper bag before leaving.  They weren’t quite quick enough though. The plant exploded while they were still inside.   The young father watched in horror from the front yard as the glass from their sunny front window, once such a beautiful part of their home, became a deadly force flying in shards toward his family.  Miraculously, Mom and daughter were safe.  They had stepped around a corner into an interior hall just as the blast occurred.  They scrambled out of their wrecked home and into their damaged-but-drivable Jeep and headed out to put a safe distance between themselves and the burning fertilizer plant. But Dad, a volunteer fireman, did not go with them.  As his wife pulled out of town, he waved good-bye to his own family, so recently and mercifully spared, and ran toward the blast zone to help others.  There are no words…

I stand in awe of the second, third and fourth responders.  The folks who know how to bind up wounds and board up houses; the organizers who can find a place for the piles of water bottles, and clothes, and diapers; the comforters who can hold a hand and bring a moment’s peace; the competent ones who know how to make and serve coffee for the multitudes – all of these people are heroes to me.  I’m terrible at all of that kind of thing, paralyzed by the chaos, I’m more in-the-way than helpful.

All day Thursday and Friday I monitored the media. Through the window of my computer screen, I watched the tide of help roll in while I sat in my office.    Eventually I began to see notes like this: “We are hearing from pretty much every official that we speak to that monetary donations are needed at this time.”  A way for me to respond!  I may not know exactly what to do in a crisis, but I dang sure know how to write a check!  We all have some part to play, and this is my part for now.

What’s the connection?

By Ashley Bean Thornton

Today – as you know – has been a glorious spring day in Waco. I had already been to the Downtown Farmer’s Market for lunch, and was taking a break after exploring Art on Elm when I happened to walk up behind my friend DB in line at Lula Jane’s . He surprised me by gallantly paying for my orange-cranberry scone and iced tea.  That’s the kind of day it has been, the kind where somebody picks up your tab just because you’re standing next to him in line — a TERRIFIC day.

So it came to pass that I’m munching my scone and visiting with my benefactor and his lovely and talented wife, LB, when she says, “I got your email,” meaning the Act Locally Waco Friday Update email. Then she makes a sweeping gesture with her arm that takes in the scone, Art on Elm, and the whole glorious day, and she asks, “What’s the connection?”   I don’t know why she asked it – maybe she had seen the blurb about Art on Elm in the Friday Update and wanted to know why a blurb about an art festival was included in a newsletter about reducing poverty.  We didn’t end up talking about it.  Someone else wandered up and took the conversation in a different direction, or maybe we just got distracted by an especially tasty bite of scone; anyway, we never finished the thought.

There is a connection though.

Act Locally Waco was born out of a desire to help reduce poverty in Waco.  The basic idea was that there are (A) lots of people in Waco who care about reducing poverty, and (B) lots of things going on in town to reduce poverty, and maybe it would be (C) helpful to have a website to help bring A and B together. From the very beginning, though, an important part of the Act Locally Waco philosophy has been that “not-poverty” is not enough.  It’s not enough to dwell solely on what we DON’T want; we need to do some dwelling on what we DO want. And one of the things we DO want is more days like today:  a day that every person in Waco can enjoy regardless of income level, a day to come out and commune with your neighbors and listen to music in the beautiful sunshine, a day to fall in love with everyone you see, a day to remember how great we can be together.