Hurricane Aftermath (Political Observations)

Parent Cafe
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<p>“mini, how can we organize that kind of grass roots responsiblity?”</p>

<p>If I had to start anywhere (and I have, a long time ago), it is to break down the barriers between races. Our schools are now more segregated than at any time in the past 30 years. The percentage difference between white and black rates of home ownerships in the U.S. are the same as they were in 1905. Our churches are, for the most part, segregated. The gap between rich and poor, and between white and black has been growing rapidly for the past decade. Our medical infrastructure for the poor has been breaking down. So you see two things happening at the same time: while the gaps between rich and poor, black and white are growing, we are even less likely to know each other across racial (and class) lines.</p>

<p>I’m always amused by statistics showing the U.S. ranks 27th or whatever in public education. The reality is, however, that public education for white America is 2nd or 3rd in the world; for Black American, it ranks with Tunisia. Same with infant mortality rates. There is a large gap in life expectancy. (One of the things that is causing the so-called Social Security crisis is that now, for the first time, Black males are living long enough to collect on it.)</p>

<p>No one talked about “grass roots responsibility” during 9-11. So I’d ask respectfully, and knowing full well that people SHOULD find ways to take care of themselves and of their communities, how much of the talk about “grass roots responsibility” is just yet another way to blame the victims? I mean, it’s less than a week and we’re already blaming them? Given the way they’ve been treated by government in the past, what reason would they have for trusting government a week ago (even if they didn’t know that the head of the agency responsible for their welfare was the failed executive of a horseshow association?) The reality is that the majority of folks in New Orleans DID take of themselves. I received an e-mail from an old African-American friend who now lives in Oklahoma City, but came from New Orleans. She cared for an aging grandmother on a ventilator, a mother with Alzheimers; a daughter recovering from a car wreck, a son who was brain damaged at birth (a hospital “accident”), and another daughter with three kids. She holds down two jobs to support them all. She asks, given that if she still lived in New Orleans with her 1983 Oldsmobile, which family members should she leave behind?</p>

<p>(Shouldn’t the inhabitants of the Twin Towers have taken care of themselves better? I mean, after all, the towers were tall, and planes fly high all the time…)</p>

<p>The nation now has a test. Will we build 200,000 units of new public housing, in cities that haven’t built them for current residents? Will there be new, long-term nursing homes and assisted living facilities for the victims? Long-term job training programs? Funds for public education? Long-term access to medical services? Or will we be playing trickle down yet again, turning what’s left of New Orleans into a new Disney theme park?</p>

<p>I am not hopeful regarding what to expect from the federal government. But I am always hopeful about the wonderful things I see constantly in communities. They are not nearly enough - but that’s where it has to start.</p>

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<p>WHat we need to remember is that when the evacuees are called poor, many many were the working poor, with minimum wage jobs, but working. So we have jobs to create in a time when jobs are scarce</p>

<p>As much as the powers that be won’t like it, its almost a New Deal situation. Its not just the jobs lost there, its the ripple affect of jobs all over the country.</p>

<p>My irritation today- gas prices!!! Why up so quick and do the gas companies ever say, well today we will break even and not make a profit, for the sake of our country…we have record profits this year, so lets keep prices at their same level to help our country…what kind of patriots are they?</p>

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<p>mini, honey, that wasn’t quite the kind of grass roots organization I was talking about. Simmer down, now! You’ve missed the point.</p>

<p>In fact, there was an unbelieveable, informal grass roots response to 9/11. I know many many people who escaped the building and immediate area and many of them were taken in by strangers–Manhattanites-- all over the island. The stories are legends. It was not a government response, it was a grass roots response.</p>

<p>I currently live on the Pacific rim in an earthquake zone. The government instructs us to have four days supply of food and water at the ready, just in case.</p>

<p>Along with those instructions, there ought to be another instruction:</p>

<p>When you evacuate, consider taking someone less able along with you–if you have the means to do so.</p>

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<p>

Thanks, we all have to help.</p>

<p>The reports were that most people showed up at the Superdome with a pillow and a sixpack. No one took the hurricane warnings seriously, and the government can’t cure that.</p>

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<p>The grassroots part of the disaster relief effort worked fine. A perfect example is St. Bernard’s Parrish, which was 100% flooded. Even the disaster relief headquarters had been destroyed. </p>

<p>Local citizens organized a private rescue boat operation and transported hundreds of victims to the only dry ground in the Parrish – a ferry landing on the Mississippi River. From there, they rounded up a working ferry boat and began ferrying victims to a dock on the other side of the river at Algiers Point.</p>

<p>The problem? Four days after the hurricane hit, not one single bottle of water or one single morsel of food had been delivered to their operation points on either side of the river. People who had been successfully rescued were dying of dehydration on the two docks: about 10% of 1000 people rescued from their houses by the this grassroots effort died on the docks without food, water, or medical care. And, this neglect came despite desperate calls for help from those involved in the rescue, including police chiefs and elected officials and an organized effort by family members to contact the federal government and the state government. </p>

<p>In a nutshell, both FEMA and the state disaster relief effort left St. Bernard’s Parrish to die. This strong grassroots relief effort received its first bottle of water from the outside world on Friday, the fifth day after the hurricane.</p>

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<p>“In fact, there was an unbelieveable, informal grass roots response to 9/11. I know many many people who escaped the building and immediate area and many of them were taken in by strangers–Manhattanites-- all over the island. The stories are legends. It was not a government response, it was a grass roots response.”</p>

<p>What do you think has been happening in Baton Rouge, or, in fact, all over the state of Louisiana? I have homeschooling friends in Baton Rouge who started taking in families on last Saturday night, and who have been organizing since then, and, until Friday, they claim never to have even SEEN anyone from FEMA. They now say (they wrote me this morning) that the size of the town has more than doubled, virtually all of it from informal grassroots response. The Xavier rescue was organized by folks from Southern and Grambling universities (with some monetary help from Jessie Jackson) - FEMA wouldn’t even talk to them (and wouldn’t even admit there were students left behind in the dormitory.)</p>

<p>BUT - and it is big but - in New Orleans, the only kind of grassroots response that would have made a big difference would be WHITE people inviting BLACK people into their cars, and into their homes. It did happen, and is happening, but if you look at the income, housing, and transportation stratification of NOLA, that is the only thing kind of “grassroots response” that would have effectively made a big difference.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054719[/url]”>http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054719&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Barbara Bush: Things Working Out “Very Well” for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans </p>

<p>By E&P Staff </p>

<p>Published: September 05, 2005 7:25 PM ET updated 8:00 PM </p>

<p>NEW YORK Accompanying her husband, former President George H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, “This is working very well for them.” </p>

<p>The former First Lady’s remarks were aired this evening on National Public Radio’s “Marketplace” program.</p>

<p>She was part of a group in Houston today at the Astrodome that included her husband and former President Bill Clinton, who were chosen by her son, the current president, to head fundraising efforts for the recovery. Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were also present. </p>

<p>In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: “Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we’re going to move to Houston.”</p>

<p>Then she added: "What I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.</p>

<p>“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this–this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them.” </p>

<p>Make me want to puke, sorry, but what arrogance and snobbery</p>

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<p>

I was thinking the same thing…about your post. Talk about slanted reporting.</p>

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<p>They are very conflicted because THE Bush State is taking the lead in helping the dislocated. Makes their heads spin.
I hope lots of them stay in Houston. It has ample cheap housing and a booming job market for even the unskilled.</p>

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<p>Texans do have something to boast about. They stepped into the breach on behalf of Americans everywhere. May God bless them for doing it. You better believe that many distress calls went out and they answered in a BIG way.</p>

<p>Barb’s comments were a matriarch’s way of saying: “Atta boy.” At least she is there, helping.</p>

<p>mini—Exactly. For a grass roots effort to work, white, affluent New Orleanians would have to assist black New Orleanians, elderly New Orleanians and unwell New Orleanians.</p>

<p>I don’t see the racial barrier to that plan that you see. Given a second chance, I am sure many affluent New Orleanians would have taken someone less able. No problem.</p>

<p>For one thing, that second car the Whoozits left in Metarie? It drowned in the garage anyway.</p>

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<p>“most were underprivileged anyway” that is not slant, that is what she said, and how snobby can a person be</p>

<p>That is classism at it worst, no matter what spin you want to put on it</p>

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<p>A matriach who things, well they were poor, so this is like a good thing to happen…cause its working very well for them</p>

<p>they lost homes, loved ones, jobs, pets, friends, but its working well for them because they were underprivaleged anyway</p>

<p>If you think that was a nice thing to say, an atta boy, get a clue</p>

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<p>And I will be helping here with our 300 people everyday. Its not alot, but its what I can do to help people.</p>

<p>I would have expected nothing less from Texas, by the way…its the least they can do</p>

<p>and other states, other countries have offered aid, supplies, help, and have been turned down or put off</p>

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<p>Anybody ever tell you to quit digging when you find yourself in a hole?</p>

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<p>It hurts when the truth doesn’t agree with your fantasy doesn’t it…</p>

<p>To claim any part of this is beneficial for anyone is callous and cold and heartless</p>

<p>But whatever, when its your turn to be homeless, jobless, losing family members, even though you worked and had a home, and someone says, well, this is working out well for you, even though you have nothing, you may learn about the rest of humanity, and perhaps get your compassion back</p>

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<p>It hurts when you jam that foot down your throat.</p>

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<p>Keep saying the same thing, means nothing, people all over the world wll know what Barbara Bush said and see it for what it was…heartless</p>

<p>At least I see your heros for what they are-- clueless about people not at the same financial level they are</p>

<p>Deny deny deny, people see the truth and it scares you, so you get angry at those that point out the truth</p>

<p>I can take your little remarks because I understand the source, you can’t bully people away, try as you like</p>

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<p>Dig, dig, dig, dig…I think we’re all clear on you agenda, and it isn’t helping anyone.</p>

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<p>"mini—Exactly. For a grass roots effort to work, white, affluent New Orleanians would have to assist black New Orleanians, elderly New Orleanians and unwell New Orleanians.</p>

<p>I don’t see the racial barrier to that plan that you see. Given a second chance, I am sure many affluent New Orleanians would have taken someone less able. No problem."</p>

<p>I hope you’re right. I think we’ll soon have the test - Since they will NOT be invited permanently into our homes, to what degree will Americans be prepared to both site and pay for 200,000 units of new public housing, and all the support services for the people who inhabit it?</p>

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<p>get a clue</p>

<p>Really cgm, if you are going to be a frequent commentator, you simply MUST learn to respond to other posters without personal attacks. You diminish your points with slander. </p>

<p>Pullllleeeeeeezzzze.</p>