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Replies to '09/12-13 Hurricane Katrina: Rescuing the Rescuers and Rebuilding'
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September 14, 2005, 6:29 pm PDT
 Quote From: lcgarret I have worked at the Astrodome in Houston, helping storm survivors since the Thursday before Labor Day. We have received nothing but overwhelming appreciation and gratitude from the people we have served, and many of our city's guests (that's what we call them, by request of our city's wonderful Mayor), have moved out of the shelters into apartments, started new jobs, and enrolled their children in school. Many of the folks in our shelters - storm victims - have become volunteers at the shelters, just to find a way to give back some of the help that we've given them. I'm sure there are some "welfare sucking" people in the thousands of people Houston has welcomed to our city - they exist in every city in our country. I haven't encountered anyone like this, and everyone has been incredibly patient and accommodating during the process of getting so many people resettled for the time being.
I am very embarrassed and dismayed at the raw bigotry I am seeing on this board. These people didn't choose for this to happen, nor did they choose to be poor. Yes, the looting and the chaos at the Superdome was horrible - but how do we know how people in our cities would behave in similar circumstances? We do not have an "equal opportunity" in this country - in every city, schools in low-income areas are underfunded and provide a much lower level of education, and low-income people do not have access to higher education (even many middle-income families cannot afford university education for their children). Poor families do not have access to stable living environments, they struggle for food, the list goes on. Yes, there are people who live off the system, and believe that they're entitled to benefits. But - it is not fair to paint everyone in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with the same brush. The poor people from New Orleans are mostly low-income working people - taxpayers like you and me. There are plenty of middle and upper income families in these areas who are trying to gain assistance from FEMA and the Red Cross, as well - it's not just the poor who are expecting assistance from the government....which we all pay for with our tax dollars. I am very sad for the hateful people on this board who think that this horrible disaster is "good" for the people of New Orleans, and who feel that they don't deserve help right now.
And, by the way - I'm a white, educated, professional. I'm white, educated, and professional as well. My parents couldn't afford to send me to college either. I worked and took out student loans which I'm still paying off. I now teach at a community college and, let me tell you, higher education IS available to anyone who wants it. If parents can't afford it, there are grants and student loans. Actually, had my parents been just a little bit poorer, I would have been better off because I would have qualified for grants that I would not have had to pay back. You can call it bigotry if you want, but this has nothing to do with race. I would feel exactly the same about a community of white people living mostly on welfare and sucking the system dry. We don't help impoverished people by giving them hand-outs. What they lack is basic dignity, a thing that comes from taking care of oneself and one's family without the charity of others. There's a big difference between providing fresh water, food, and basic medical assistance to hurricane victims and giving them houses and thousands of dollars. Tragedies happen to all sorts of people every single day. Most people, however, never get the kind of assistance these people are getting. They take care of themselves and don't expect hand-outs. |
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