Ben DeSoto/Houston Chronicle Jesse Jackson, center, U.S. Rep. Al Green left, and U.S. Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee hold a press conference before touring the Astrodome.
Posted on 09/05/2005 2:04:37 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Ben DeSoto/Houston Chronicle Jesse Jackson, center, U.S. Rep. Al Green left, and U.S. Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee hold a press conference before touring the Astrodome.
Joining two of Houston's most prominent black legislators in slamming the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said today that evacuees shouldn't be shipped to distant states and shouldn't be referred to as "refugees."
Jackson said he appreciated the willingness of states as far away as Utah and Minnesota to take in evacuees but suggested such plans take them too far from their families and the homes that must be rebuilt.
"It's a long ways from home," he said. "It's a long way from where they have lived, where they were acculturated."
If evacuees are living thousands of miles away, he said, they can't be in on the jobs and economic opportunities that will arise as their communities are rebuilt. He proposed using military bases in Louisiana, such as the mothballed England Air Force Base in Alexandria. Evacuees could live in dorms and tent cities.
Jackson said evacuees from the Gulf Coast are not refugees, a word he believes suggests subhumans or criminals.
"It is racist to call American citizens refugees,'' he said.
After touring the Reliant Astrodome today, Jackson blamed the federal government for many of the problems evacuees now face. The government should have assisted New Orleans with evacuation efforts before the storm struck and has been far to slow in its wake to rescue those left in the city and provide aid, he said.
"As the waters subside, the death toll could be astronomical, of frightening dimensions, because we've been so slow to act," Jackson said
U.S. Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee, D-Houston and U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, also said the Federal Emergency Management Agency left New Orleans unprotected.
"This was a test case, and we failed," Jackson Lee said.
Jackson also lambasted the Louisiana office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, saying it should have let the Red Cross into New Orleans immediately after the hurricane passed one week ago.
Homeland security officials told the Red Cross not to enter the city because they were trying to get residents out, not encourage them to stay, because most of the city was still under water, and because armed gangs of looters were in the streets.
Marsha Evans, president of the American Red Cross, said today the agency was ready to go in. Its volunteers understood the danger and were willing to do their jobs, she said.
"The decision not to let them in was not sound," Jackson said. "The danger was exaggerated."
The federal government has been taking criticism from all quarters in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune, in an open letter, called upon Bush to fire every official at FEMA.
"We're angry, Mr. President,'' the newspaper said in an open letter.
If criticism of the federal government has been sharp, Jackson and other political leaders were happy to praise the efforts of Houston and the state of Texas, where one quarter of a million of Louisiana's refugees have landed.
"I'm so proud of Houston," Jackson Lee said. "This city has done a wonderful job."
Yes Rep Jackson Lee, I agree. The welfare state has most definitely failed.
I hope a lot of these people gain new lives from a culture of self reliance and hope.
Ship them to Detroit.
I'll bet Maine (with it's higher welfare payments) is breathing a sigh of relief about now.
LMFAO - I just spewed iced tea on the keyboard.
What kind of idiot even listens to this race-baiting huckster anymore?
Jess, the ancestors of a good portion of New Orleans's population survived being transported from Africa to the U.S. Utah or Minnesota, weather and funny accents aside, ought to be a snap for their descendents.
I still think they are desperate to keep these people in LA because they are the people that elected the likes of Landrieu.... they know if they lose this voting base the State might actually elect people with a backbone.
"Jackson said evacuees from the Gulf Coast are not refugees, a word he believes suggests subhumans or criminals.
"It is racist to call American citizens refugees,'' he said."
So all those Vietnamese that came over during the war are "subhuman" or "crimainals"? And since when is "refugee" dependednt on race? People of all races were displaced because of Katrina. This man gets more idiotic every day.
Have these people asked these FOOLS to speak for them?
The best thing that will probably ever happen to them is getting out from under the control of the Race Pimp.
to jessejackassandcompany you are a bunch of animals, how pathetic you are.
Jackson et. al. are so transparent with their supposed worry about "acculturation" that it makes me sick. New Orleans was a major hub and power base for the Democratic party that they really don't afford to lose. Nevermind that many of the NO evacuees are going to be better off outside this cesspoll.
He's been singing the same old song so long, he's lost his beat.
"The government should have assisted New Orleans with evacuation efforts before the storm struck and has been far to slow in its wake to rescue those left in the city and provide aid, he said."
Check out the molars on that gift-horse.
Whats the matter Jesse, you don't want your people to be moved too far away from the plantation? Are you afearing that you might lose control of them??
Well, 2 of the 4 displaced NOLAns interviewed on the local (Lubbock) news a while ago said they're here to stay.
PS: And, I'm sure it's not far from Jackson and Jackson Lee's minds that Lubbock is the #2 conservative city in the nation.
So all those foreign refugees .... they're subhuman and/or criminals? The ones who flee Cuba and Vietnam, the ones who flee natural disasters around the world, Jesse thinks they're subhuman? What a frickin' racist.
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