Bush overlooks family
Thom Koschwanez
Issue date: 9/7/05 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
"There's nothing for them here," said New Orleans police chief Warren Riley in response to people staying with their homes after Hurricane Katrina has come and gone.
But the question must be asked, "What is for them 'there'?"
Some of the people that stayed in New Orleans have lived there for their entire lives; some are the third generation from the same family, living in the same house. Some of them have never left New Orleans and some never will.
There is not a released plan for where the evacuees of the city are to live long- term. The ones who have been evacuated have not been told what became of their homes or where they will live for the months and years to come.
In an interview on the American Public Media program 'Marketplace', former First Lady Barbara Bush visited with people stranded in the Houston Astrodome, she said, "so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
So according to Bush, living in an arena with 8,000 other homeless people is better than living in your own home.
This is the mentality of upper-class Americans: food and shelter equals living. Throw money at a situation and when that money runs out, at least the government tried.
In some respect, Bush might have been correct in her statement that people are eating three squares per day and able to take a shower, that is living but it is not life.
Life is the photos in albums that are irreplaceable, it is the home where your family gathers at holidays, life is coming together at a familiar place when a loved one dies.
For tens of thousands of people, life was and is in New Orleans, each with their own small square of land that was worth little monetarily but worth everything to those who lived there.
New Orleans is built on tradition and heritage. The federal government needs to let displaced people know that they will do everything they can to help them recover not just in monetary contributions but by returning to the homes, to recover what cannot be replaced.
This is why people sit in their homes that flood to and beyond the first floor with stagnant disease-riddled water. They will sit there until they are reassured, because three squares and a dry place is not good enough, they need more, they need someone to reassure them that the memories will be recovered. They need a leader that knows what it means when something cannot be replaced, no matter how much money there is.
But the question must be asked, "What is for them 'there'?"
Some of the people that stayed in New Orleans have lived there for their entire lives; some are the third generation from the same family, living in the same house. Some of them have never left New Orleans and some never will.
There is not a released plan for where the evacuees of the city are to live long- term. The ones who have been evacuated have not been told what became of their homes or where they will live for the months and years to come.
In an interview on the American Public Media program 'Marketplace', former First Lady Barbara Bush visited with people stranded in the Houston Astrodome, she said, "so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
So according to Bush, living in an arena with 8,000 other homeless people is better than living in your own home.
This is the mentality of upper-class Americans: food and shelter equals living. Throw money at a situation and when that money runs out, at least the government tried.
In some respect, Bush might have been correct in her statement that people are eating three squares per day and able to take a shower, that is living but it is not life.
Life is the photos in albums that are irreplaceable, it is the home where your family gathers at holidays, life is coming together at a familiar place when a loved one dies.
For tens of thousands of people, life was and is in New Orleans, each with their own small square of land that was worth little monetarily but worth everything to those who lived there.
New Orleans is built on tradition and heritage. The federal government needs to let displaced people know that they will do everything they can to help them recover not just in monetary contributions but by returning to the homes, to recover what cannot be replaced.
This is why people sit in their homes that flood to and beyond the first floor with stagnant disease-riddled water. They will sit there until they are reassured, because three squares and a dry place is not good enough, they need more, they need someone to reassure them that the memories will be recovered. They need a leader that knows what it means when something cannot be replaced, no matter how much money there is.
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