NY Loves Biloxi

New York Daily News: It's our turn to help Biloxi---

With news of the awesome destruction down South comes a memory from the terrible days after 9/11, when a big banner went up in Times Square.
"Biloxi loves NYC!" the banner announced.

The banner was sent by Biloxi High School to Stephen Pitalo, a graduate of the Class of 1986 who had moved from that Mississippi city to New York and became a TV and radio producer. He also received boxes of relief supplies collected by students at the Biloxi grammar school he attended, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Along with hanging the banner, Pitalo personally delivered the boxes to the recovery effort at what had been the World Trade Center. The gloves, socks, goggles and first-aid cream no doubt came in handy, but what mattered most was the goodwill from Biloxi and so many other places.

It felt as if goodness itself had risen in response to the absolute evil that struck in downtown Manhattan. The country and indeed the world seemed to unite behind us.

These four years later, we had particular cause to remember the message of love from Biloxi, as reports of the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina flashed on the news zipper directly above where the banner had hung in Times Square.

Pitalo's grandmother as well as several aunts and uncles still live in Biloxi, but he reports that they all had evacuated before the storm hit. He noted that his family had lived there for generations and had seen dozens of hurricanes.

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The footage prompted hundreds of calls to the network offering sympathy and support from all over, a welling of the same goodness that blessed us here after 9/11. Pitalo noted yesterday that both the Red Cross and the Salvation Army are accepting donations to assist with the relief effort in the hurricane zone.

"I hope people will remember there's folks down there who really need their help," Pitalo said.

Meanwhile, let us say this:

"NYC Loves Biloxi!"

And Gulfport and New Orleans and all those other stricken places that opened their hearts to us in our darkest time.