LETTER TO THE EDITOR — TPC aftermath missing needed understanding, remorse

Published 12:05 am Tuesday, February 18, 2020

I don’t imagine I will ever forget the TPC explosion — it’ll be something I talk to my grandchildren about, no doubt.

You know, when I think of the neighboring folks and businesses down the road from my house, I think of my sweet neighbors who let me borrow an egg upon my remembering that I don’t have any as I’m already in the middle of cooking. I think of the great guy who owns a restaurant down the road where I go to eat crawfish when it is in season.

I think of the local DQ and the hilarity of how “important” it is to “mind the gap!” I think of the school where I work and all the wonderful children I get to pour into each day. There are many things I think of, but now and unfortunately, I also think of the plant down the road that exploded in the middle of the night.

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When it initially happened, I was sure we were about to die in those moments. Unparalleled fear exuded out of me as I woke from a deep sleep with no idea what was happening. Words will never do justice to fully describe it, but if you were someone in my community who experienced it too, then I know you understand what I mean.

You know, I always teach my students at school to own up to their mistakes and do whatever they can to make things right when they are in the wrong. As it were, my job as a teacher goes far beyond teaching them math and language arts, etc.

In fact, it is my joy to teach them things the textbook will never cover. When a passion and career and a calling on your life all collide, it’s truly a beautiful thing. Want to know what is even more beautiful? When the eyes of these kids’ hearts are opened to how they’ve hurt someone and then they follow up in a manner that reflects remorse and a desire to do anything possible to make it right.

We spend all year long in my classroom diving into deeper heart issues that go beyond multiplication and the water cycle. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen kids finally pick up on how this Biblical, moral and beautiful model of a repentance and restoration process works.

When I am in the wrong, and believe me — it happens all the time — I have enough integrity and decency within me to do anything and everything I can, to the best of my ability, to make it right in the most appropriate way, however that may look.

My desire is to do it in a way that is in the best interest of the people I hurt, NOT in my own best interest and how I can “get by” with doing as little as possible or making things as difficult as possible to the hurt party for my own good and benefit.

It’s not rocket science. When you mess up, own up to it and make it right the best you can, with integrity and a heart for those you hurt. That’s what I am teaching these sweet babies day in and day out. Along with that, I also have to teach them that not everyone handles it this way and what’s happening before our very eyes with this explosion aftermath is a prime example on a larger scale and it’s very disheartening, frustrating and wrong.

Not everyone apologizes, not everyone tries to make it right, and not everyone cares about them. In fact, many do the opposite — they excuse, they blame and they throw hurt on top of hurt. It’s a hard truth but it is the truth and it is so sad.

What our community has endured is the perfect example of something done/gone wrong and remorse/restoration not being done in the best possible way, but rather in a way that is wrong, difficult and beyond frustrating. It’s really sad.

The truth is that this CAN all be turned around in such a beautiful way and made right if the people “in charge” should choose to do so. If little 8- and 9-year-old children in my school room can do it, then most certainly grown adults can. The circumstances and scale of the situation at hand may be different from what these sweet children deal with, but the heart behind it is the same.

The disaster has already happened — we can’t go back and change that. But the aftermath isn’t finished. Far from it, in fact. But like I said, the way things are currently being handled have the potential to change tremendously.

If things don’t change, then sadly it’s a disaster upon disaster — hurt upon hurt. The very thing that goes against the grain of what’s good and right — the opposite of what I’m trying to instill in these children who will one day grow up to be adults who have to make choices in how they handle their wrongs. I’m so sorry for my community and all those affected by what has and what is happening.

— Kelsey Morgan, Port Neches