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."
Why, oh why do you insist on making a liar out of yourself newbie?
You make no refutation -- just an ass out of yourself.
If you like, I can teach you how to argue. In a few years, if you apply yourself, you may be able to debate a 13-year old.
Please send an application and tell me why I should spend (waste?) my time instructing you in the fine art of communication.
Operators are standing by.
"'It is racist to call American citizens refugees,' he said."
All I wanna know is what freaking dictionary is he using?
"Acculturated....
...Is that a word?"
Yes, it means without culture, as in someone lost their culture. American Indians were supposedly acculturated because of the US Indian Policy of the 1830-1930's or so. The plan was to "Kill the Indian, while saving the man."
I'd say it failed miserably. So has "Refugee" Jackson.
I'll accept that S29.
Have a GREAT day!
Regards,
Beautifully said, and God Bless
"The Insurance companies will have the final say and they ain't gonna put a dime into rebuilding in place."
Actually, I believe you're wrong. At least on places that have a mortgage. You can fix the place, or sell it, but your insurance money is supposed to be used to fix it. We had folks out here after the May 3, 1999 F-5 Tornado that took the money and ran, but most people rebuilt. The ones with a mortgage rebuilt.
Hehehehe
I love it when someone runs out of the rink :)
You have a GREAT day, too coward ;)
Hey Jesse, you primo poverty pimp you, got a SUGGESTION for ya, why not WAIT and see what the 'evacuees' prefer?
What?
You afraid they might run into some education, some genuine hands UP, some realization that this is a great big country and in some places, drug dealers don't deliver fear to your doorstep every single day? How's come? Afraid that 'seeing the light' might allow your 'people' to SEE YOU without the blinders on? Scary thought, that.
Ya might lose your cushy $$$$ ya made threatening racist blackmail on major companies.
Hey Jesse, you primo poverty pimp you, got a SUGGESTION for ya, why not WAIT and see what the 'evacuees' prefer?
What?
You afraid they might run into some education, some genuine hands UP, some realization that this is a great big country and in some places, drug dealers don't deliver fear to your doorstep every single day? How's come? Afraid that 'seeing the light' might allow your 'people' to SEE YOU without the blinders on? Scary thought, that.
Ya might lose your cushy $$$$ ya made threatening racist blackmail on major companies.
Better add China, DPRK, Cambodia, Zimbabwe, & Venezuela to the list.
To Je$$e Jacka$$, anyone who flees any communist/socialist paradise IS a subhuman criminal, Hell-bent of destroying 'The Dream'.
'speshly iff'n dey's ain't black, an' wuhks hahd; dat makes fo' less'n fo' hiz pipples, an' hiz pahwah. 'ows a race-pimp tah sahvive unner dose cone-DISH-uns?
I am not an expert in this field at all -- I am making an educated guess based on the economics of the situation. Some places are potentially subject to a single incindent such as a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, etc. But NO has been exposed as inherently dangerous with no ability to redeem itself. It may be years before concrete may be laid on the ever-shifting sands.
NO is unique in it has entire (now aging) infrastructure dedicateted to keeping nature out.
I think the insurance compainies won't allow rebuilding on silt.
Me thinks Jesse's "girl friend" days are over. ; )
Be still my heart.....
So is the rest of my prediction invalid?
Or do you see another scenario? Please show your work as I did.
He was "Acculurated" in Hymietown where he first learned to spit in the food of white folk and then to use race-baiting techniques to extort money from hapless stupid corporations. And all this while he was laying his mistress and knocking her up. Oh yeah,....He acculurated OK!!
Well she's fat, and stupid and a racist! Does that information help!?
I truly believe, that if Martin Luther King were alive, he would slap the &hit out of Jackson, peacefully, of course.
I'm not sure if Jesse actually sucks, but we know his mistress does!!
If only those slave reparations had come across in time, why just think how easy it would have been for a caravan of new Caddies to leave NO!!
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