COLUMN: An emergency relief effort in our own back yard

While the world's attention is focused on the victims of Haiti, people who live 30 minutes from the beaches of South Walton County go hungry. Word was released on Monday, Jan. 25, that Walton County Commissioners sent a representative to meet with The Muscogee Tribal Council in Bruce (about 10 miles East of Freeport) to resolve an immediate emergency need for families in the Tribal family.

During the recent two-week extreme cold snap, we brought our plants and our pets inside and huddled in our warm houses while some Muscogees huddled in houses without electricity or water and barely enough food to keep them alive. 

They are a proud people... not bent on begging for assistance. The recent recession has affected jobs and the domino effect has placed lives in danger.

Many of our service organizations state they are "tapped dry" and others "do not service that area of Walton County" so the forgotten peoples once again face a Trail of Tears.

The Tribe is recognized by the State of Florida as a nation, however, Congress — with its mountain of red tape and pathetically inadequate ability to move quickly on anything — has been sitting on the bill for the tribe's federal recognition for many, many years. Despite the failure of government, we all must step up to the plate and meet the needs of our corner of society by providing food (or money), services, or by just passing the word along to those who are willing and able to help.

If you have never seen the Muscogee museum — north on Church Street East of Bruce Café — it would be a good time to visit and take some non-perishable food, health and baby aids, or make a check to: Muscogee Tribal Nation, earmarked "emergency relief."

Carol McCrite

Point Washington