SUVs prove their utility. (The Goodness of America).

Political and environmental zealots have savagely assailed sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in recent months, insisting that they are weapons of mass destruction driven by financiers of terrorism.

To the chagrin of their critics, a cadre of SUV owners were instrumental in providing crucial transportation for health care workers and others during the huge snowstorm that blanketed the Washington, D.C., area in February. On February 18th, for instance, the Washington Times reported that "a volunteer army of SUV owners rolled through the area's snow-covered streets this week to help doctors and nurses reach their jobs" after "more than 20 area hospitals, nursing homes and hospices asked for help delivering essential staffers -- and in some cases patients -- as nearly 2 feet of snow made roads too slippery and clogged for most cars."

Dr. Richard Goldberg, vice president of medical affairs at D.C.'s Georgetown University Hospital (where 50 SUV owners volunteered), told the Times, "It's an amazing display of volunteerism." And Jackie Hubbard, a staffing assistant at Maryland's Prince George's Hospital Center, added, "I really can't believe the outpouring of the volunteers. We've had to turn people away." Hubbard told the Times that "about 30 drivers in sport utility vehicles gave rides to hospital staffers, and that roughly 100 more drivers called but were not needed. 'They could be doing a lot of things on a day like this,' she said. 'They could be next to the fire reading a good book or lying in their bed. I know that's what I'd be doing.'"

One SUV volunteer, Phil Heuschen of Arlington, Virginia, "started driving staffers and patients to [Virginia's] Inova Alexandria Hospital on Sunday at noon, went home at 2 a.m. and was on the road again ... at 9 a.m. He said the roughly 40 volunteer drivers developed a sense of camaraderie over the two days and reveled in each other's snow stories."

Another SUV Good Samaritan, D.C. resident Tony Snesko, told the Times that he was untroubled by the anti-SUV crusade. He and wife Valerie "spent Sunday delivering meals in their SUV to people dying of AIDS for the group Food and Friends.... 'I figured I needed to start doing what Scripture tells me to do, which is help people in need. Where would America be ...