Don't ship evacuees far, Jesse Jackson says (from "where they were acculturated.")

Houston Chronicle ^ | September 5, 2005 | Eric Berger

[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."

[Mike Darancette]

"It's a long ways from home," he said. "It's a long way from where they have lived, where they were acculturated."

Translation: Bring them back to the plantation they can'ts live nowhere else.

When you think about Jackson's southing's is rather raciest. Can you imagine Tom Delay saying this?

[USArmySpouse]

"It's a long ways from home," he said. "It's a long way from where they have lived, where they were acculturated."

And thank GOODNESS for that. This is probably a huge blessing for some of those families. Maybe they'll actually learn that THEY can make a change and make better lives for themselves now.

[U S Army EOD]

I would like Jesse's comments on the fact that the Vietnamese have already acted and taken in their own.

[EGPWS]

"I deny the allegations....and I deny the allegater" - J. Jackson

Reminds me of a bright and sunny Sunday morning while attending service when someone f*rted....

It didn't go over well with the congregation. ; )

[LibFreeOrDie]

I'll bet Maine (with it's higher welfare payments) is breathing a sigh of relief about now.

Actually, a lot of Somalians haved moved to Maine, particularly Lewiston. Those that first settle in New Hampshire soon discover that Maine is a better deal, welfare-wise, and move there.

Also, some move to Maine to get away from high-crime urban areas, specifically Atlanta.

[satchmodog9]

Once again, the master word smith used another out of context.

[TheForceOfOne]

Ship them to Detroit

A couple of days there and they would be asking to go back to New Orleans.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Je$$e may have a point about them not being criminals...the criminals are the ones running NO and the Rainbow Coalition.

[Guenevere]

Your rudeness was uncalled for.

If you had bothered to read down to post #72, you would have seen me answer my own question...

..but I think you were in too much of a hurry to post your rude reply.

[Ditter]

>>"want to get a taste of a different culture">>>

That is what the word means I don't think he use it correctly. It means to CHANGE your culture by being exposed to other cultures.

[leadpenny]

lol, I thought maybe he had detected an odor from one of the other two in the pic.

[weegee]

As for being "acculturated" maybe they can reculturate and have a better quality of life than they had before.

The left doesn't want a melting pot America. They want a balkanized nation of special interests groups they can play off of one another with envy and bigotry.

[Not A Snowbird]

News flash, Jesse. Alot of those people are going to find out there's life outside New Orleans, and it's pretty darn good.

They're not coming back.

[Torie]

"It's a long ways from home," he said. "It's a long way from where they have lived, where they were acculturated."

Sounds racist to me. The culture of America in my experience is quite familiar to anyone from anywhere in America no matter where they go, and getting more so. Moveover, getting off the plantation might do some good, and NO had some aspects of a plantation, a plantation in a bowl, cemented over. Got that Jesse? The man is a pig.

[mabelkitty]

Shipping out the soon-to-be-former Dem voters to the deepest red state in the Union.
Too funny.

[LibertyRocks]

I think the reason they want to draw the distinction is that there is a cultural definition of the word that has seeped into American's minds. To most Americans the word refugee recalls to mind pictures of places in Africa, and other 3rd world countries where there is political unrest, as well as Cuban refugees and such.

I heard Jesse, not Rush however, and he made the point that these people are Citizens of the US, and are not refugees. People in the US IMHO might brush off helping hearing the word refugees because we are too used to hearing it. Hearing CITIZEN might encourage us to dig in our pockets deeper... sad but true.

[Fintan]

 

 

[Cincinatus' Wife]

BTW, what is Al Green doing in that pic?

It's hard to miss, isn't it? Yuck.

[weegee]

Why don't the "Church and State" types ever tell REVEREND Jesse Jackson to get his nose out of politics?

If this were Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell standing up there with Tom DeLay and Senator Hutchinson the left would be throwing fits.

[kenth]

Jackson is upset about the word refugee, but doesn't have a problem coming up with an idea to more or less force these people to live in tent cities with winter coming on. We can give these people a chance to get out of the poverty and turn a disaster into something good. Jesse wants to make sure they get right back into the same predicament and under the same leadership that abandoned them in a death pit.

Did I mention he is a POS?