I sent an email to my buddies with the news story on this. Here are my thoughts on the matter:
Back in 1939, the USSR invaded Finland in a campaign which today is called The Winter War. It was one of history's most heroic campaigns, and unfortunately has been overshadowed by the other events of WWII. Everyone expected the small but plucky Finns to be overwhelmed by the mighty USSR juggernaut, which greatly outnumbered them. The Finns, however, being made of hardy stock and being used to their mountains, forests, and 8 months of deep snow a year, had other ideas. Legend has it that the first observation of the Finnish border guards who saw the Soviets massing to attack was "So many Russians; where will we bury them all?" The Finnish Army fought the Soviets hard and inflicted damage far out of proportion to the numbers of men on each side, killing 10,000 Russians for every 250 men they lost. After 105 days, the Soviets threw in the towel and entered into an armistice.
One result of The Winter War was that a Finnish word entered the world's lexicon for a brief period of time: sisu, which roughly equates to the American term "guts." One definition is "It stands for the philosophy that what must be done will be done, regardless of what it takes. Sisu is a special strength and persistent determination and resolve to continue and overcome in the moment of adversity…an almost magical quality, a combination of stamina, perserverance, courage, and determination held in reserve for hard times."
Here in America, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we see so much on the TV about the looters and about the folks who have sat in place for days waiting for help to come to them, but this story below is about ordinary folks that had the sisu to do something about their situation. Jabbar Gibson and a couple of others took an unused schoolbus and left town, grabbing everyone they could find along the way. Reports vary as to whether the police advised him to take it or whether he just took the keys and started rounding folks up to get them to safety. Not military, not trained for disaster, they were just a steadily growing conglomeration of complete strangers with the will to overcome adversity by driving through flooded city streets, past dead bodies, picking up fellow evacuees along the way, pooling their money for fuel and diapers, and enduring painful schoolbus seats for 13 hours, and finally almost turned away at their destination. Another news report states that young Jabbar had about 70 people on his bus by the time he reached the Astrodome
For the people of New Orleans, such a catastrophe hit them like the Russians hit the Finns, yet some rose to the occasion. I would hope that if any of us were in a situation like Jabbar and his fellows faced, we too would display such sisu.
