Annoying Katrina interview

[ssleblanc]

I also think the media enjoys finding people to interview that will shock us.

This says SO MUCH about what I think is happening with New Orleans/Katrina victims. The stories you hear about are the few shocking stories.

Another thing that just popped in my head too - that I think people don't know about. The 9th ward that flooded so bad, and had so many deaths and destroyed homes. It is mostly very low income. BUT - a large majority of the residents of 9th Ward were homeowners. They were poor, but they were proud and they worked hard for what they had. They worked minimum wage jobs and struggled to buy their homes. Just because they were poor, didn't mean that they were on government assistance. Several people who work for the company I work for lived there. They come from the lowest paid departments/jobs. Their spouses worked hard in low paying jobs. But they worked to buy their own house. They worked very hard given the extremely poor condition of the schools in New Orleans (a kid can't help what family he is born into - I have seen some of those schools - there is NO WAY I would send my kids to those schools, but these people didn't have a choice). Many of the families lived (and owned houses) in the 9th ward for generations. Just because they were poor didn't mean that they weren't homeowners, or that they didn't support themselves. They paid income tax, property tax (sure, the value of the houses was a lot lower than mine, but they paid property tax on the value of their house just like I did on mine). But these people's stories are not being told (a lot of them are told in the Spike Lee/HBO movie, another reason I recommended watching it - and I DO NOT like Spike Lee - at all, but I was impressed with how he presented the New Orleans story). The assumption is that the people rescused off of those roofs were not self-sufficient. Many of them were. But their jobs paid just enough to get by. Just enough to pay for their own house, for the food on their table, and for public transportation. They didn't need a car because the bus system took them to and from work/school, to the store/etc. They couldn't afford cars, but didn't need them. That didn't mean that they were on public assistance. But they scraped by. Now, the jobs are gone. Living paycheck to paycheck and having your home, all of your posessions, and your job ripped away in one day, can certainly change one's perception on life. I know mine has, and I still have my savings, my job, my house (although still not repaired), my 2 cars, and for now my husband has his job.

 

[lulu71]

I think what those who are acting as judge and jury here fail to understand is fear of the unknown we all had in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. While we lived very comfortably on August 28 in that "affluent" neighborhood Marie spoke of above, on August 29, we were completely homeless and all we had were 2 days of clothes we took with us. Communications were completely down and my DH could not get in touch with anyone at his company for a week, so we didn't know if he even still had a job. We knew his company's location was wiped out, so things didn't look so good. We also had a two month old baby (at the time).

So while it appeared that we were living high on the hog in our 1BR villa at OKW (we evacuated there and stayed on our DVC points so no, I was not the person who stayed at WDW on FEMA $$$) - things were not at all what they seemed. See how easy it would be to say "oh, look a Katrina person in that cushy 1BR villa at OKW. Must be abusing the system, tsk tsk..." The reality was completely different.

 

[ilovejack02]

This says SO MUCH about what I think is happening with New Orleans/Katrina victims. The stories you hear about are the few shocking stories.

Another thing that just popped in my head too - that I think people don't know about. The 9th ward that flooded so bad, and had so many deaths and destroyed homes. It is mostly very low income. BUT - a large majority of the residents of 9th Ward were homeowners. They were poor, but they were proud and they worked hard for what they had. They worked minimum wage jobs and struggled to buy their homes. Just because they were poor, didn't mean that they were on government assistance. Several people who work for the company I work for lived there. They come from the lowest paid departments/jobs. Their spouses worked hard in low paying jobs. But they worked to buy their own house. They worked very hard given the extremely poor condition of the schools in New Orleans (a kid can't help what family he is born into - I have seen some of those schools - there is NO WAY I would send my kids to those schools, but these people didn't have a choice). Many of the families lived (and owned houses) in the 9th ward for generations. Just because they were poor didn't mean that they weren't homeowners, or that they didn't support themselves. They paid income tax, property tax (sure, the value of the houses was a lot lower than mine, but they paid property tax on the value of their house just like I did on mine). But these people's stories are not being told (a lot of them are told in the Spike Lee/HBO movie, another reason I recommended watching it - and I DO NOT like Spike Lee - at all, but I was impressed with how he presented the New Orleans story). The assumption is that the people rescused off of those roofs were not self-sufficient. Many of them were. But their jobs paid just enough to get by. Just enough to pay for their own house, for the food on their table, and for public transportation. They didn't need a car because the bus system took them to and from work/school, to the store/etc. They couldn't afford cars, but didn't need them. That didn't mean that they were on public assistance. But they scraped by. Now, the jobs are gone. Living paycheck to paycheck and having your home, all of your posessions, and your job ripped away in one day, can certainly change one's perception on life. I know mine has, and I still have my savings, my job, my house (although still not repaired), my 2 cars, and for now my husband has his job.

I also know that to be true about the 9th ward. Def. not everyone in N.O. is not self sufficient. I worked in a shelter for 3 weeks here in B.R. and most of the folks had jobs in N.O.and some even found work within a couple days of being in the shelter and continued to work the whole time they were there.
The media does like to pick out the crazies to interview sometimes. I watched a special on HGTV last night... and it was wonderfully done and told the stories of 4 families. Very sad yet heartwarming at the same time. These families were all busting the behinds to rebuild their lives.

 

[mefordis]

I guess my real feeling about this whole thing is that we let this happen. It was more convenient for us - and by us I mean American society in general - to let a group of mostly poor, mostly black people live in poverty in New Orleans. More conveient than educating them, more convenient than requiring them to hold jobs, more convenient than providing them with social programs and structured opportunities to climb out of that life of only knowing how "to get', but not how "to earn." So it seems a little disingenuious to me at this stage to start expecting them to follow those rules.

It also seems to me that if I were poor and somebody gave me a card with two thousand dollars on it, and I didn't have much education or really know where I was going to go, and all I knew was that somebody had always given me housing and food before, that I might very well spend it on a **** job, or something equally ridiculous-sounding to most people, instead of funding a Roth IRA.

Anyway, I can certainly understand why people are frustrated with some of the stories they hear. But really, I think it's unrealistic to expect anything else. You can't expect an outpouring of material goods to solve a problem that society has been grappling with for decades.

DVCLiz, and others who share the same opinion copied in this post: it takes a certain level of open mindedness, and ability to think beyond what the eye is seeing and the ear is hearing to even try to understand this point of view. It also takes someone who isn't angry with their own life, for whatever reason, to understand this point of view. It takes someone who really has compassion for other human beings, regardless of their differences.

Many people who share the view of the OP and are angry at the hurricane victims in general, for whatever reason (they believe they aren't helping themselves enough, have squandered the money, etc.) are comparing themselves to these people and are thinking of how THEY would react and what THEY would do in that situation and it's just not possible to know because they will NEVER be in that situation. So their arguments are really a mute point.

You could ask them to try to show more compassion but I don't think they are capable in this juncture of their lives. I think a life changing event would have to do it for them. Maybe a catastrophe in their own lives. Maybe death. For me it was motherhood (I can't imagine forcing a mother in poverty to "pick herself up by the bootstraps and "help herself" when when there is a small child in the picture to feed and care for). Or, maybe never.

Rarely, if ever, can you change a person. All you can hope for is that compassion will win over rage.

 

[airhead]

Did anyone else see it? Shame on our government. It made me sick.

 

[DawnCt1]

I guess my real feeling about this whole thing is that we let this happen. It was more convenient for us - and by us I mean American society in general - to let a group of mostly poor, mostly black people live in poverty in New Orleans. More conveient than educating them, more convenient than requiring them to hold jobs, more convenient than providing them with social programs and structured opportunities to climb out of that life of only knowing how "to get', but not how "to earn." So it seems a little disingenuious to me at this stage to start expecting them to follow those rules.

.

Public education is free and available in every state in the United States, so I am not sure what you mean about "more convenient" than educating them. I can only imagine the hue and cry should their welfare benefits be cut and they be required to hold jobs. As far as social programs, they may be suffering from an over abundance of those. If they only know how to "get" instead of "earn", perhaps that should fall back on those who propagate the welfare system and whine about how President Bush didn't "do enough". I find it interesting that refugees from Viet Nam can survive in refugee camps for years, come to these shores and send their kids to MIT. Perhaps they taught themselves "how to earn".

 

[Sherri]

Before I visited New Orleans this summer I had compassion for the many ways in which so many lives were changed. Once I visited and saw in person in July how little was done to help the poorer sections of N.O, it made me feel angry at the lack of progress. I feel for the people of New Orleans with all my heart. I think to get a better understanding of just what they went through, you need to visit and go on the Katrina tour, you may find yourself a bit more compasionate when you get all of the facts.

 

[C.Ann]

This says SO MUCH about what I think is happening with New Orleans/Katrina victims. The stories you hear about are the few shocking stories.

Another thing that just popped in my head too - that I think people don't know about. The 9th ward that flooded so bad, and had so many deaths and destroyed homes. It is mostly very low income. BUT - a large majority of the residents of 9th Ward were homeowners. They were poor, but they were proud and they worked hard for what they had. They worked minimum wage jobs and struggled to buy their homes. Just because they were poor, didn't mean that they were on government assistance. Several people who work for the company I work for lived there. They come from the lowest paid departments/jobs. Their spouses worked hard in low paying jobs. But they worked to buy their own house. They worked very hard given the extremely poor condition of the schools in New Orleans (a kid can't help what family he is born into - I have seen some of those schools - there is NO WAY I would send my kids to those schools, but these people didn't have a choice). Many of the families lived (and owned houses) in the 9th ward for generations. Just because they were poor didn't mean that they weren't homeowners, or that they didn't support themselves. They paid income tax, property tax (sure, the value of the houses was a lot lower than mine, but they paid property tax on the value of their house just like I did on mine). But these people's stories are not being told (a lot of them are told in the Spike Lee/HBO movie, another reason I recommended watching it - and I DO NOT like Spike Lee - at all, but I was impressed with how he presented the New Orleans story). The assumption is that the people rescused off of those roofs were not self-sufficient. Many of them were. But their jobs paid just enough to get by. Just enough to pay for their own house, for the food on their table, and for public transportation. They didn't need a car because the bus system took them to and from work/school, to the store/etc. They couldn't afford cars, but didn't need them. That didn't mean that they were on public assistance. But they scraped by. Now, the jobs are gone. Living paycheck to paycheck and having your home, all of your posessions, and your job ripped away in one day, can certainly change one's perception on life. I know mine has, and I still have my savings, my job, my house (although still not repaired), my 2 cars, and for now my husband has his job.

--------------------------------------

Great post! It seems that as soon as people hear the word/words "poor" - or "low income" - they automatically assume it means that people are living on welfare or looking for hand outs from the government.. Not everyone in this country needs or wants a huge home, fancy cars, designer clothing, cell phones for every member of the family, or 4 trips to Disney a year.. They're content to work very hard at those low paying jobs that no one else wants (nor could this country function without) to "earn" what little they have and then when something as devastating as Hurricane Katrina comes along, the victims are victimized further and considered the "bad guys" in all of this.. I don't understand that line of thinking..

The majority of these people will work hard again to rebuild their lives, but unfortunately "all" will be measured by the same yard stick as the few who abused the FEMA dollars - and were able to do so largely because it was a system that was run in such a shoddy manner it could be easily abused by anyone who chose to abuse it - even people living thousands of miles away who never even resided in the hurricane ravaged areas..

If ever there was a situation where you have to have "lived it" to understand it, this is it..

 

[ssleblanc]

Public education is free and available in every state in the United States, so I am not sure what you mean about "more convenient" than educating them. I can only imagine the hue and cry should their welfare benefits be cut and they be required to hold jobs. As far as social programs, they may be suffering from an over abundance of those. If they only know how to "get" instead of "earn", perhaps that should fall back on those who propagate the welfare system and whine about how President Bush didn't "do enough". I find it interesting that refugees from Viet Nam can survive in refugee camps for years, come to these shores and send their kids to MIT. Perhaps they taught themselves "how to earn".

Have you ever seen the public education system in New Orleans? I have. The schools were horrendous. The people who grew up going through those schools (and not receiving a proper education, despite going to school every day) had no choice in what school they went to. It was free public education, but that doesn't mean that these people were properly educated. My husband teaches college in New Orleans, and you would be surprised by how many kids come into his science classes - a product of New Orleans public schools - and can't read or write a complete sentence. Free public education in inner city New Orleans is not the same as free public education in (even the poor areas) of Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, etc. The schools were without air conditioning (our cold front yesterday brought us temperatures as low as 90 degrees and the humidity was only 60 percent - a big break from our normal temperature for this time of year. People (DISers) complain about the heat and humidity in Orlando this time of year. The heat and humidity is the same here in New Orleans as it is in Orlando. These kids were in schools, trying to learn, in what amounts to a sauna with no air conditioning. I don't know about you, but I can't learn in that environment. Add in the rats, the black mold growing in the classrooms, the doors and windows that don't open and or shut. It is really sad. I love this city, but I live in the suburbs because of it. But, my job pays enough that I can afford to do that. These kids are shown, by the education system that is supposed to educate them, that they "don't matter". They see what a school SHOULD look like on television shows, and they see the conditions of the school they are provided by their government (state, local, federal) - and "know" that they don't matter. If they mattered, wouldn't they be given the same quality education as everyone else on free public education? (Of course I do think that they matter, and that every child in this country should be provided a quality education in an environment that is condusive to learning. But I can certainly see how they feel that they've been given the short end of the stick.)

I can only imagine the hue and cry should their welfare benefits be cut and they be required to hold jobs. As far as social programs, they may be suffering from an over abundance of those. If they only know how to "get" instead of "earn", perhaps that should fall back on those who propagate the welfare system and whine about how President Bush didn't "do enough".

And again - people are assuming that all of those poor people who were rescued and are getting help now were on welfare and taking government handouts. THAT JUST ISN'T THE CASE. Most of the people in the hardest hit areas were HOMEOWNERS who WORKED to pay for their houses. They paid taxes. They were not suffering from an over abundance of social programs because these were poor people who were NOT taking advantage of social programs. They were employeed in the low paying jobs (the jobs like collecting garbage, sweeping floors, construction work, truck drivers, welders at shipyards, etc). Many of those jobs (and the companies that employed them) are gone - washed away by the flooding. So, they lost their job, their house, and in many many cases, their families.

Those assumptions are coming from the media focusing on the few. But 9th Ward, Gentilly, and Lakeview (an affluent area) - are mostly houses owned by the people who lived in them. People who bought those houses by working. I find it upsetting that so many people who don't live here, and don't really know the facts are assuming that those people were slackers who refused to work. That just isn't the case.

-----------
C. Ann - thank you!

 

[LuvDuke]

--------------------------------------

Great post! It seems that as soon as people hear the word/words "poor" - or "low income" - they automatically assume it means that people are living on welfare or looking for hand outs from the government.. Not everyone in this country needs or wants a huge home, fancy cars, designer clothing, cell phones for every member of the family, or 4 trips to Disney a year.. They're content to work very hard at those low paying jobs that no one else wants (nor could this country function without) to "earn" what little they have and then when something as devastating as Hurricane Katrina comes along, the victims are victimized further and considered the "bad guys" in all of this.. I don't understand that line of thinking..

The majority of these people will work hard again to rebuild their lives, but unfortunately "all" will be measured by the same yard stick as the few who abused the FEMA dollars - and were able to do so largely because it was a system that was run in such a shoddy manner it could be easily abused by anyone who chose to abuse it - even people living thousands of miles away who never even resided in the hurricane ravaged areas..

If ever there was a situation where you have to have "lived it" to understand it, this is it..

I too applaude your post, C.Ann.

However, I do feel you missed one crucial factor in your statement: "It seems that as soon as people hear the word/words "poor" - or "low income" - they automatically assume it means that people are living on welfare or looking for hand outs from the government."

You forgot to add the visual of "African-American". That's what truly gets the ball rolling.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

 

[stevenpensacola]

I did not read all the posts, but did read the first page...and I have to agree with the OP.

The thing I keep hearing over and over is that "the government has not done anything for me".....is it the responsibility of our government to provide for the welfare of every citizen? I realilze that these folks had no control over the flooding/levee breaks.....folks did suffer, and are still suffering....

but is it the governments job to provide for everyone's every need?

Following the entitlement logic, anyone who has ever lost their home in any sort of way: fire, earthquake, termites, flood, vandalism, etc should be re-imbursed by the government. Anyone who has ever died tragically....car crash, accident, suicide, is also due reimbursement.....where does it end?

I'm surpised that the Katrina victims haven't been labeled as HEROES by the media.

 

[Holly]

Public education is free and available in every state in the United States, so I am not sure what you mean about "more convenient" than educating them. I can only imagine the hue and cry should their welfare benefits be cut and they be required to hold jobs. As far as social programs, they may be suffering from an over abundance of those. If they only know how to "get" instead of "earn", perhaps that should fall back on those who propagate the welfare system and whine about how President Bush didn't "do enough". I find it interesting that refugees from Viet Nam can survive in refugee camps for years, come to these shores and send their kids to MIT. Perhaps they taught themselves "how to earn".

Dawn,
You live in a state that encompasses both the best and worst when it comes to education. Sure, you and I probably live in areas that have decent education, but what kind of education do you think that children in Hartford are receiving? A pitiful one.

Sure, I can't argue with the fact that public education is free and available in every state- but the quality of the education differs greatly. Kids in Hartford are not getting educated in the same way that kids in Greenwich are, and the same goes for those being educated in poverty-stricken areas around the country.

Most of the poor in the New Orleans area were "working poor" and not living off of welfare. The true picture of someone living off welfare in this country is NOT a black person, but a white one. By far, the majority of welfare recipients are white, single mothers.

 

[DawnCt1]

Dawn,
You live in a state that encompasses both the best and worst when it comes to education. Sure, you and I probably live in areas that have decent education, but what kind of education do you think that children in Hartford are receiving? A pitiful one.

I would disagree that the students in Hartford are receiving a 'pitiful' education. More money per dollar (over $12K in 2004) is spent per pupil than any of the surrounding towns including the top performing towns. The problem isn't the education, the problem are the parents who do not do their job parenting. When companies have to chip in and give away prizes for those who show up for the first day of school, its a pathetic situation that has very little to do with the teachers, etc.

 

[Holly]

I would disagree that the students in Hartford are receiving a 'pitiful' education. More money per dollar (over $12K in 2004) is spent per pupil than any of the surrounding towns including the top performing towns. The problem isn't the education, the problem are the parents who do not do their job parenting. When companies have to chip in and give away prizes for those who show up for the first day of school, its a pathetic situation that has very little to do with the teachers, etc.

The situation in Hartford's school system is something all Connecticut residents are/ should be ashamed of. We haven't come far enough since Sheff v. O'Neill.

Education is key here, and people living in poor areas are getting a sub par one.