Self-Organizing Action part II

Right after posting on "The Selfish Volunteer", I noticed David’s post on Self-organizing action. My interest piqued, I popped on over to Emergency Communities and found a very interesting quote that dovetails nicely with my previous post and even more so with Ed Duke’s post, The New Unaffiliated Volunteers.

…in
the midst of all this devastation, something beautiful happened. Volunteers,
donations, medics, builders, and dreamers poured into the effected areas. Each
day that ticked by found more and more people working from empathy alone to
help save lives, clear debris, and rebuild. Relief kitchens sprung up across
the gulf. Teams of people, sometimes with nothing but a pick-up truck and a
chainsaw, went from house to house to help the elderly pull their possessions
from the rubble. Many of these people came down alone or in groups,
unaffiliated with any large organization. Many were frustrated with the slow
mobilization of volunteers that plagued many traditional relief organizations.
They braved the nights in tents, ate what they could, and slowly but surely
energized broken towns and desperate people. Over time, these independent
relief efforts became some of the most effective forces in the disaster
recovery.