Quote From: lilacmessI'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.
My parents didn't pay for my education, either - I worked my way through three Bachelors degrees and a Masters degree with some assistance from a scholarship while doing my undergrad work. Lack of money is not the only thing holding low income people back from higher education - as an educator, you know that it is common knowledge that public schools in poor areas are always underfunded and have a lower quality of education, and most low income families do not have access to private education or tutors. Many lower income students do not have access to the education necessary for admission to a university, and grants have been severly cut back over the past several years.
Bigotry is not exclusive to race. I have never mentioned the race of the people affected by this disaster. It has affected white and black people, Hispanic people....people across the board. The bigotry I am referring to is bigotry against the poor - lumping them all into a group defined as "lazy," "sucking the system dry," "lacking basic dignity," etc. The people who have come to shelters in Houston, for the most part, do not fall into this catgory at all. The people I have met are hardworking, taxpaying, family people...who have lost absolutely everything they own - their homes, their jobs, their family members and friends, the pets they had to leave behind, hoping they would survive on their own. Their dignity, strength and character in a situation like this has overwhelmed all of us working at the shelters. Everyone who has been affected by Katrina is eligible for assistance in rebuilding their lives, including the people who were able to leave before the storm, and who have something to return to. "Handouts," as you define them, are available to everyone - money from FEMA and the Red Cross to help folks get back on their feet. The storm survivors in Houston are not "cashing in" for a cushy life back in Louisiana. Most of them have nothing to go back to, don't plan to return, and are starting over with nothing but the clothes on their back. Many of the people who came to the Astrodome, Reliant Center and GRB in Houston have already found jobs and are at work in our city. Their children are enrolled in and attending school.
I truly hope that something like this never happens to you, or if it does, you do not encounter people who feel that any help beyond food, water or basic medical assistance is a hand-out. I'm sure you wouldn't begrudge the assistance folks in Florida received after being hit with 5 hurricanes last year, or assistance to folks who survived earthquakes in California, or any similar disaster in this country. Even middle-class and wealthy people take advantage of federal relief in rebuiliding after a crisis like this. We say that it's due us, because we pay taxes - but lower income folks pay taxes, as well. Even those who are "sucking off the system" pay into the system through sales taxes and excise taxes. It is truly wonderful that Dr. Phil has helped these few families, but the vast majority of them are getting the "up to $2000 per family" that FEMA and the Red Cross are offering - nothing more. And, most of the folks I have met don't want or expect more - they just need a start to help them rebuild their lives.
Dr. Phil's coverage in the devastating wake of Hurricane Katrina continues. In Part 1, they’ve helped thousands of hurricane victims make their way to safety, but who is going to help the rescuers? Dr. Phil offers his advice to hurricane relief workers for coping with the horrors they’ve witnessed. Then in Part 2, see heartwarming reunions, and hear stories of tragedy and triumph as the city begins the slow process of rebuilding and recovery. Join the discussion.
