We saw the first part of the ECU game, when they fell behind, and the general
feeling seemed to be that it was too hard, that the dislocation, and the stress
of friends and loved ones being in harm's way was too difficult to overcome in a
football game.
And then we saw the end. We saw ECU
surging, attacking with huge confidence, we saw Miami reeling, we saw, in
short, a cat pounce.
And while we are not ECU fans, we couldn't be happier. Sometimes a game
becomes a cause, and in this case, the cause was this: there's a huge disaster
to recover from, there's tragedy enough to go around, but the human spirit will
not be broken. The East Carolina team, tonight, was resilient, determined, and
heroic - precisely the qualities needed to recover from this calamity. The
upset win brings a lot of joy to folks who have lost everything they have, and
it underscores the spirit of North Carolinians - when it's time to get it done,
we'll get it done. This is the first bit of optimism we've had
since Floyd came calling. It was an electric game, an electrifying victory, and
a chance for folks who couldn't stop one Hurricane to stop a whole bunch of
them. We couldn't be prouder of the ECU football team if they had been our
own.
Speaking of proud, Duke
fans brought almost three tons of non-perishable food to the Vandy game, and
raised 2,000 dollars in cash as well. We might have given more cash, but 3
tons of food will go a long way, and a lot of people will be profoundly grateful
for that.