Egads.  Not that I don’t think dad is a little off his rocker here, but whatever happened to selfless community service at home?  Talk about being thrown into the deep end.

I think community service at home is not sexy enough. Living vicariously through one’s offspring, to be blunt.

When the dad gets a bee in his bonnet, it’s pretty much a done deal. So....

After asking around a bit, Emergency Communities sounds like a good fit. They need people, lots of people for 40 hour work weeks and they provide food, water, and a place to stay with security. In tents, but no more than what most of the residents of St Bernard parish have unless they were ‘lucky’ enough to get a FEMA trailer. The scope of volunteer needs and opportunities is staggering.

The lad is interested in it. In fact, he seemed quite interested in what their website had to say and how they presented it. They certainly don’t sugar coat it.

I would agree to the idea as long as his commitment is for no more than two weeks. The place is a toxic soup in the extreme. Long term exposure is not recommended if you don’t have to be there. This volunteer outfit appears to think one week is about right as that’s the time frame their accommodations are set up for. Two weeks and you bring your own tent. They come right out and say that long term exposure is a really bad idea.

We’ll see how this flies. I won’t agree to or support any more than two weeks. I’d prefer one week. And if he goes, he needs to have all his innoculations updated. The place is not a healthy place to be. I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea, I have to admit.

I’ll run this by the dad and see how he responds.

There was a spate of stories a few weeks ago about college kids spending their spring breaks helping rebuild homes in N.O.; could that have prompted this?

Oh I really don’t know. I talked with him a few minutes ago and the other part of the story I hadn’t heard was the idea of going to Washington DC to be an intern this summer. Hello....applications, security checks, miles of red tape. We don’t start this process in late May. It took my nephew almost 8 months to get his clearance and acceptance and he had connections.

The tone came down several notches and two weeks in NOLA is fine. He hadn’t thought about toxicity. He hadn’t thought about food or shelter. Or security in a disaster zone under dusk to dawn curfews.

But I believe we are on the same page now at any rate. It looks as if the lad will go for a week or two. I am in agreement that it would be a good experience for him and he’s a hard worker and gets along well with others. No strings will be attached to this and we will pretend it was never mentioned. Right? Right.

He could spend the summer in my woods cutting down cedar trees if you’d rather. Rural Missouri is pretty safe.

How about hooking up with Jimmy Carter’s organization?  They seem to be all over the place and would (perhaps) be a little less by the seat of your pants and he would probably learn some useful skills in the process........of course, can I remember the name??  NO!  They built houses in Lawrence, MA not all that long ago.  Just a thought…

(my younger son was an Intern in DC when he was 14 and 15--maybe even younger, I think)-- twice, once for each side and he had excellent connections to get there--it was an awesome experience, but even with the connections it had to be set up 6 months or so ahead of time) I also think the housing arrangements were changed so that you almost need someone to stay with--but I could be wrong.

I definitely wouldn’t just pack up and go, that’s for damn sure!  N.O. wasn’t the safest place even before the hurricane.  There’s bound to be plenty of programs tailored just for young folk his age: Mercy Corps for one, Red Cross for two, and that’s just without thinking much!

I like your thinking, Pablo. Cutting down trees in rural MO sounds like a good environmental stewardship opportunity.

Cyn, you’re probably thinking of Habitat for Humanity? That would be an option, of course, but whatever he does has to involve some sort of shelter, supervision, and security. These are things to look into over the next couple of weeks. The Emergency Communities was actually recommended by the local Catholic Charities, so I think that stays at at the head of the list for now, but any other suggestions are welcome, too.

Alan, we’ll check out Mercy Corps and the Red Cross, too. Clearly, the need for help and volunteers is enormous in NO, but it doesn’t make good sense to just send the lad off without a solid plan in place. I’m sure, from their perspective, one of the last things they need are strangers showing up and getting in the way without having something to do under some sort of organized program. And I won’t allow it to happen, either.

My feeling is that this is a project that would be better postponed until next summer. I have a strong hunch that the colleges participate in volunteering programs for the summers and are a bunch more organized with more connections than one family and kid. I’d feel better about it if he was a part of a group, too.

Hey, Jack Carter is coming here to Seattle to do some fundraising on Thursday.  Should I ask his dad (Rosalyn and Jimmy are coming too) whether HforH needs some help from the lad?

After visits by prospective future Democratic presidents as the race for 2008 gets underway (see my preview), we here in Seattle are about to be graced by both living Democratic presidents within a nine-day span ... Clinton’s coming to help local hero Jim McDermott pay his legal bills.  And I’ll be there for both of them.

Better yet, ask if they need a good hardworking gofer for the summer. One who understands the GOP mindset and can frustrate the living bejebus out of Dems in arguing against their ideas and points while agreeing with them 100%.