Right now, I'm proud to be a Texan

I might be stating the obvious, but please humor me.

I could not be more proud of our Texas communities, cities, charities, musicians, artists, and citizens than I am right now, in their response to the two recent hurricanes. All across Texas, it seems that every town, school, special interest group, church, charity, and individual has found either time or money to contribute to the cause of our neighbors in Louisiana and South Texas. Our respective governments may not quite have it together, but our people have their hearts in the right place and they are being very effective.

I, myself, have been lucky enough to be involved in several charity events over the past few weeks, including an effort to raise money for Katrina victims at Frisco's StarCentre on Saturday, September 10th. Special thanks to Dan Scot Parr for organizing the musicians for this event. And, of course I have to mention City Councilman Matt Lafata, who put in a particularly active stint in the dunk tank--I'll bet he single-handedly raised a couple of thousand dollars all by himself :-)

By the way, Matt, how's that cold coming?

But I digress. The people that are making the real difference are not us high-profile types. They are the individual contributors who throw in five or ten dollars, time-and-time again, and the hundreds of nameless volunteers who work tirelessly to make these events happen, and to keep awareness going, way past the catastrophe.

Hats off to all of you, friends and neighbors. Let's keep it going!