He Held Their Lives in His Tiny Hands

LATimes reported In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader. They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.

Unfortunately according to this the minimum age to run for Governor is 25, but according to this the only requirement for Mayor is that the candidate shall a citizen of the United States by birth, a qualified elector of New Orleans, and shall have been a resident of New Orleans for at least 5 years immediately preceding the candidate’s election.
The reason I raise this, is that I have two good candidates for Governor and Mayor, Jabbar Gibson and Deamonte Love. Both showed much more initiative that either Governor Blanco or Mayor Nagin. Maybe Jabbar could run for Mayor, and then in seven years, when he becomes 25, he could run for Governor and Deamonte could take over as Mayor of New Orleans (if there is such a place at that time).

Thousands of human stories have flown past relief workers in the last week, but few have touched them as much as the seven children who were found wandering together Thursday at an evacuation point in downtown New Orleans. In the Baton Rouge headquarters of the rescue operation, paramedics tried to coax their names out of them; nurses who examined them stayed up that night, brooding. Transporting the children alone was "the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, knowing that their parents are either dead" or that they had been abandoned, said Pat Coveney, a Houston emergency medical technician who put them into the back of his ambulance and drove them out of New Orleans. "It goes back to the same thing," he said. "How did a 6-year-old end up being in charge of six babies?"

Barbara O'Brien blogged Six-year-old saves baby and five toddlers.

Arthur Silber blogged This really got to me