Quotable & Notable

“This tragedy would have not been in vain if it had served to once more show we are a strong, loving, united nation, where we are all brothers and sisters, whatever the color, whatever the religion.”

-- An editorial in the Daily News in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where at least 21,000 people were killed in a tsunami Dec. 26. The island nation has been wracked by two decades of civil war.

“I said, ‘Be calm. God is with us. Nothing will ever harm us without his permission.’ ”

-- Dayalan Sanders, recounting what he told his wife as they gathered 28 orphans into a small boat while watching the tsunami approach their orphanage in Navalady, Sri Lanka. The orphanage was destroyed but everyone on the boat survived. He was quoted by The Washington Post.

“She was our Moses that opened the Red Sea for us.”

-- Robert E. Williams, president of the Flagler County, Fla., branch of the NAACP, speaking of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress. Chisholm died Jan. 1 at the age of 80.

“M1 Abrams tanks, which normally accumulate 809 miles a year, are averaging 3,600 in Iraq.”

-- Modell Plummer, director of sustainment for the Army’s logistical staff

“$9.2 billion and $5 billion”

-- The amount the Army and the Marine Corps respectively have requested this year for emergency spending to repair, replace and upgrade equipment damaged, destroyed and worn out in Iraq

National Catholic Reporter, January 14, 2005