Editor’s Note: The following editorial is a reprint from the Sun Herald newspaper in Gulfport, Mississippi, at the request of that newspaper’s Marketing Director, John McFarland.
In 1969, when Hurricane Camille left much of the Coast a mangled, unrecognizable pile of debris, thousands of Daily Herald readers found inspiration in a single photograph of an American flag, proudly flying atop a bent flag pole amid the ruins.
We reprint an excerpt from an editorial a few days after the storm. It was written by the late Bob McHugh, the Herald’s new associate editor, who had barely unpacked his family and their moving boxes when Camille left them with nothing.
“When the U.S. Marines captured Iwo Jima in 1945 and hoisted the American flag on volcanic Mt. Suribachi, the event was recorded in a brilliant photograph.
“Something comparable has been happening, quite spontaneously, all along the Gulf Coast. Early last week, staff photographer Ronnie Elias recorded with his camera near devastated Pass Christian an area of intense destruction. An American flag was flying bravely on a twisted pole in the foreground.
“Since then, a number of people have dropped into The Daily Herald offices to tell us of the unusual number of flags flying in valiant defiance of the wreckage wrought by the worst storm to hit the continental United States in recent history… .
The flag and the slogan “Together We Build” galvanized the Coast’s irrepressible spirit into the muscle and momentum that helped build South Mississippi into the state’s most powerful economic engine, a vibrant and beautiful place to visit, to work and to live.
That place and that spirit are still here. We are dented and dishevelled, but the people and the raw materials upon which our community was built have not been diminished.
First, we know that we can take a place smashed to smithereens and rebuild it even better than before.
Second, we have learned that through cooperation our coastal community is even greater than the sum of its individual parts.
Finally, we have learned that growth can be smart… that business, residential and industrial growth can complement rather than conflict with a unified vision of what our Coast can become… that we need not and should not sacrifice our natural resources on the path toward tomorrow.
The proud flags that symbolized “Together We Build” after Hurricane Camille can today symbolize “Together We Re-Build.” Despite all that we have lost, we’re starting with more wisdom, more experience and more people than in 1969. And, as in 1969, we will try to locate a supply of American flags so that every rebuilding site, small or large, and every flag pole, bent or straight, can proclaim to the rest of the world: Together, we’re rebuilding.
If you can help, flags can be sent directly to The Sun Herald, 205 DeBuys Road, Gulfport, MS 39507.
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