Mr. Rogers always had a way of calming us, didn’t he? In his book Mr. Rogers Talks with Parents, he shared this advice: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”
I thought of that this week as the Texas flooding tragedy still unfolds. There are a lot of questions and finger-pointing right now. When Governor Abbott fielded a question about who was to blame for the tragedy, he replied, “Every football team makes mistakes, the losing teams are the ones that try to point out who is to blame. The championship teams are the ones who say ‘don’t worry we’ve got this, we’re gonna make sure that we go score again and then we’re gonna win this game.’ The way winners talk is not to point fingers, they talk about solutions.” (AOL 9 July 2025)
When so many people are still missing and so many families are grieving such unthinkable losses, those comments don’t seem especially helpful. Actually, I’m not even sure what the man was talking about there.
What’s left of FEMA took a full 72 hours to respond with disaster assistance since Kristi Noem required her personal signature for any expenditure over $100,000. That’s three days of delay while desperate parents were digging through mud and debris for their children. But don’t blame Kristi Noem because that would make you part of the losing team. Or something like that.
But then the helpers showed up. Not the winners who talk about solutions, but the people who just showed up and started doing the work: the firefighters and rescue personnel from the Fire Department and Civil Protection team of Acuña, Mexico. That’s right. Some volunteer Mexicans crossed our border … to help.
One of the volunteers, Jesus Gomez, told CBS News, “There’s a bunch of firefighters that have visas, and we were like, ‘Let’s just go and help. Sometimes people from the other side cross and help us. It’s time to give a little bit.” Well, I’d say it’s more than a little bit. These guys are wading into murky and dangerous water to assist in rescue and recovery efforts. In fact, they are committed to staying until the last victim is found.
And that’s not the only danger they face. I know y’all have visas, but remember that in this country, we have thug militias running amok, who are rounding up brown-skinned people for deportation. So, your visas might not matter. In spite of that, these brave volunteers showed up anyway – a striking display of people who understand something higher. Gomez bottom-lined it for us: “There’s no flag or countries in between firefighters. We’re humans, and we’re helping humans, that’s what matters.” (Yahoo!News 8 July 2025) Yes. That.
These guys sure give me hope for this world. As Fred Roger’s mother reminded us, in these scary times, there will always be helpers. Let’s look to them as our example. In the words of Jesus, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 7:12) Thank you, Mexico, for coming to our aid and for putting those words into practice.
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