Katrina Heroes Honored With Courage Award

This year, Houston Mayor Bill White and Doris Voitier, a school superintendent from Louisiana, will receive the prestigious Profile in Courage award for their public service in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The award, named for president John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer prize-winning book, "Profiles in Courage," was created in 1989 in honor of President Kennedy's commitment and contribution to public service. JFK's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, will present this year's awards.

"Well, my father transformed the idea of public service for a generation," Kennedy told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "And I think each year we look for people who have stepped forward and done something well beyond what the rest of us were thinking. And we faced here an incredible disaster. And both Superintendent Voitier and Bill White set an example of public service that has inspired our nation."

The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award is presented annually to public servants who have made courageous decisions of conscience without regard for personal or professional consequences. It is presented in May in celebration of President Kennedy's May 29 birthday. Prior winners include President Gerald Ford, U.S. Rep. John Murtha and Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko.

White offered refuge and opportunity to Katrina evacuees when many of his fellow Texas mayors did not. Voitier re-opened a unified public school just 11 weeks after Katrina without any help from the federal government.

Before he opened the city to the Katrina refugees, White said radio talk show hosts were telling him to keep Houston closed.

"But most of the folks in our community realized that somebody in America needed to step up and take care of our neighbors, our fellow Americans," he said. "I'm so proud of the people of Houston that I could be a representative to receive this award for them."

Voitier got the schools of St. Bernard parish up and running even though Katrina covered more than 90 percent of parish in water. She said she relied on a committed group of educators who banded together.

"Educators, and I'm an educator, are basically rule-followers," she said. "But in a crisis, in a time — in a situation that we were experiencing, you know, we were doing deals — I was doing deals in a parking lot in buildings with no electricity. We couldn't follow procurement procedures. We did break quite a few rules, but we did because we wanted our community not to die."

White said that in time of crisis you have to throw away the bureaucratic standard operating procedures and rely on the most competent people to get the job done.

"Sometimes they're in the faith-based community, sometimes in the private sector," he said. "Corporate America has a lot of capabilities. I think people with the benefit of hindsight, some people in the federal government waited for some federal emergency bureaucracy to kick in. With you're talking about the destructions of large parts of a major American city, you need to have all the best resources of the country broad to hand."

As a result of the influx after Katrina, Houston suffered a significant crime problem that the city has been trying to fix. But at the end of the day, he says he was happy to do what was needed.

"You know, in any large urban population, there's going to be some folks who prey on the vulnerable," he said. "I'll tell you what, the evacuees that are still in Houston, that's about 100,000 people still living in Houston, who found work, who are getting on with their lives, they are among those most grateful for the fact that we have a special housing program for some who broke rules and it's called a jail. And it was just a — it's only a tiny portion of those people who came were in that category. But that would be true of any urban area."

White and Voitier, said Kennedy, defy the stereotypes about politicians. They are truly dedicated public servants.

"For me it means so much to know that — that that's true," she said, "and the career and the vision that my father set forth is really alive today."

For more information on the award visit the JFK Library Web site.