Gore: Labor of Compassion

Pic courtesy of News-Sentinel, Knoxville


Haven from fury Mercy Flight Brings Evacuees to ET
Gore accompanies about 140 arrivals from New Orleans but declines to take credit

By ROBERT WILSON, rlwilson2594@msn.com
September 4, 2005


They saw nature's unmatched fury up close.
Now they would see unbridled human compassion.

About 140 people - mostly elderly and infirm - arrived Saturday at McGhee Tyson Airport on a chartered mercy flight from hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, welcomed to East Tennessee by a bright sun and a host of medical professionals straining at the reins to help their fellow human beings without regard to whether they were on the clock.

The displaced hurricane victims came to Tennessee on a hastily arranged flight, accompanied by doctors and carrying whatever they had in boxes, bags or, in one case, an old suitcase tied up with rope.


Former Vice President Al Gore arranged the flight and was on board, but he declined to take credit for the airlift, fearing it would be "politicized."

From Knox News.com (registration req'd, but free)