Pink - "Dear Mr. President"

[Mickeyistheman]

JoeEpcot,

How many times was the Mayor on TV AFTER the horrendous act of nature happened and was asking "WHERE IS OUR AID?" FEMA wasn't there, The President wasn't there. He went to California right away though....

Just makes you think. If we don't question our government it will always be in control and right now, Home foreclosures, Car Repos, Unemployement, cost of food and gas - These are things that we need as a People to Survive and what has our Commander in Cheif done.....Nothing.

He wants to keep our troops or send more into Iran - Come on give it a rest. Focus on Home.

Oh and also if we had more of our troops home, we would have had more military planes that could have flown over the fires in California too by the way.

We have the best military and I support each and every one of them 1000%, but they should be home not fighting something that is just costing more lives.

Many people are upset with how he is handling things and now I just don't think he cares. He had his 8 years and now the next person that steps into that Oval office I feel for them because they will have a heck of a lot to clean up.

 

[jimmiej]

The problem I have is with the people who don't think it's the governments job to actually help people. The ones who think that its up to the government to pave the roads but not help people get a roof over their heads. That just baffles me.

Count me as one of those people. IMO, only very basic (and temporary) help should be available. Too much governmental assistance causes people to develop reliance.

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

JoeEpcot,

How many times was the Mayor on TV AFTER the horrendous act of nature happened and was asking "WHERE IS OUR AID?" FEMA wasn't there, The President wasn't there. He went to California right away though....

Just makes you think. If we don't question our government it will always be in control and right now, Home foreclosures, Car Repos, Unemployement, cost of food and gas - These are things that we need as a People to Survive and what has our Commander in Cheif done.....Nothing.

He wants to keep our troops or send more into Iran - Come on give it a rest. Focus on Home.

Oh and also if we had more of our troops home, we would have had more military planes that could have flown over the fires in California too by the way.

We have the best military and I support each and every one of them 1000%, but they should be home not fighting something that is just costing more lives.

Many people are upset with how he is handling things and now I just don't think he cares. He had his 8 years and now the next person that steps into that Oval office I feel for them because they will have a heck of a lot to clean up.

Re Lousiana, sure, FEMA could have done a better job, but locally they did have warnings and they were unprepared. They even had a near hit the year before that showed they were unprepared -- didn't seem to wake the local and state gov't up any.

Nothing wrong with questioning our gov't, but they don't have that much control over the economy (especially the cost of food and gas) -- and frankly that may well be a good thing. And, despite some current mixed economic news, our country is thriving.

The war in Iraq is a separate issue. I think the fight is well worth it; sounds like you don't. We'll just have to disagree on that one. (I've argued it so many times on the DIS already.)

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

Count me as one of those people. IMO, only very basic (and temporary) help should be available. Too much governmental assistance causes people to develop reliance.

I'll second that.

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

Then again maybe I am wrong and the Govt. can do something to help. In that case, I would suggest that any assistance the Govt. renders to the homeless include stringent testing for alcohol and drug use. If none is detected, provide assistance. If detected, no assistance. Heck, we can even throw in a ban on tobacco use (LOL). Tough love.

I can't tell if you are kidding or not but the people who need the most help are the ones with addiction. Definitely do drug and alcohol testing so that these people can be identified and helped.

 

[Fitswimmer]

Count me as one of those people. IMO, only very basic (and temporary) help should be available. Too much governmental assistance causes people to develop reliance.

I completely agree-hand UP, not hand OUT. I have no problem with my tax dollars going to help a family buy a home, to get regular medical care and to get a decent education. However, from what I've seen personally doing volunteer work, the programs in place today often do more to trap people in a generational cycle of poverty than they do to help people get out of that cycle. I would LOVE to see our welfare programs reformed, but I'm fairly convinced that there is a vested interest for politicians to keep a good number of folks dependant on government assistance for as long as possible. If Candidate A is going to keep the welfare program going that allows me to have a roof over my head and food in my pantry, I'm going to keep re-electing him/her over Candidate B who is proposing changes to that program that might hurt me.

How we break that, I don't know.

 

[BlessedMomOfTwo]

First, I love Pink's voice and really enjoy this song. Twenty pages of discussion just here. It seems like this song has people thinking which is always a good thing. Go Pink!

Second, those who are saying that the Federal govt couldn't respond more quickly with Hurricane Katrina should be aware that our govt had the ability to do so thru our National Response Plan. This plan was in place at the time of Katrina. It was designed to handle just the type of situation Katrina posed (either via natural disaster or terrorist act) and it worked on the presumption that in the event of an Incident of National Significance, the local govts would be overwhelmed and therefore there was a provision that allowed the Fed govt to bypass the normal red-tape procedures and provide assistance immediately. Sadly, although the plan was developed and in place, it was not enacted in a timely manner in this case.

So, please do not believe their hands were tied. They weren't. What happened shouldn't be covered up, we should learn from it so that it never repeats itself. Hopefully we have done so. The plan has had some amendments made since Katrina but the framework for immediate assistance was there at the time. Hopefully now everyone is aware and has been fully trained on it and our govt is ready to offer needed assistance from now on.

Carol

 

[Mr Man]

I can't tell if you are kidding or not but the people who need the most help are the ones with addiction. Definitely do drug and alcohol testing so that these people can be identified and helped.

Yes, I was kidding about testing the homeless for tobacco use (we can keep that as a topic for WDW resorts and parks though)......