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."
I made Ms. Lee turn white twice.
Stevie saw it once.
I guess it doesn't take.
"The decision not to let them in was not sound," Jackson said. "The danger was exaggerated."
RIGHT Mister Jackson, mobs with guns would clearly be an exaggerated lie. Of Course you didn't bother to hit the streets huh bro???
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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....
How in the hell does someone as ignorant as Shelis Jackson and Al Green get elected (ok I know). Perhaps it was the failure of the Democratic Governor, and Democratic Mayor's inaction. I believe it was their job to sound the alarm, and the Governor's job to call out the National Guard.
when you're owned by the government, you go where the goverment wants you to go.
"All I wanna know is what freaking dictionary is he using?"
The kind where all words end in the letters
- tion
- ation
In his mind those words make a person sound highly educated.
He ought to explain how/why that would be or STFU.
LOL!!
I could read that without my spec's!!
I wanted to say things that would get me banned, so I just blurted incoherently. It provided a small amount of satisfaction...
Yes, and it does NOT mean what his context shows he THINKS it means.
From the Encarta online dictionary:
acculturate
verb
Definitions:
1. intransitive verb take on other culture: to absorb and assimilate the culture of another group of people or another person
2. transitive verb change culture of somebody: to change somebody's cultural behavior and thinking through contact with another culture
Example: "John Kerry has been acculturated by faux-French influences, and is now hopelessly alienated from mainstream American society."
Jesse should be worried that, if they remain too far outside the area for too long, they will become acculturated to non-plantation living.
It does NOT, as some here suggest, mean to lose one's culture; or, to not have a culture; nor, as Jesse (mis)uses it, to be one's accustomed birth-culture.
Nah, Jindal will be Governor by then.
"Refugees, refugees refugees, refugees" -- can too say it. Come and get me. It's a great English word, used for a zillion years for people who are done in by a storm, war, disease and FLEE. You idiot, Jesse.
I think the best thing that can happen to these REFUGEES is to be sent to Texas. Texas, I suspect, is not a welfare on-the-dole state, nor do they look kindly upon people who won't lift a finger. Perhaps the Texas Gov can teach some of these REFUGEES a different sort of life. For which they will thank him after the shock wears off.
Like that black reporter who went to Africa (as a bleeding-heart), came back to the US and kissed the ground and said, "I am SO THANKFUL my forebears were taken from Africa as slaves and I could grow up here."
"Refugees, refugees refugees, refugees" -- can too say it. Come and get me. It's a great English word, used for a zillion years for people who are done in by a storm, war, disease and FLEE. You idiot, Jesse.
I think the best thing that can happen to these REFUGEES is to be sent to Texas. Texas, I suspect, is not a welfare on-the-dole state, nor do they look kindly upon people who won't lift a finger. Perhaps the Texas Gov can teach some of these REFUGEES a different sort of life. For which they will thank him after the shock wears off.
Like that black reporter who went to Africa (as a bleeding-heart), came back to the US and kissed the ground and said, "I am SO THANKFUL my forebears were taken from Africa as slaves and I could grow up here."
Detroit?!? Not Detriot!? Anything but that! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
I thought (at first) this was kind and a nice thing to do, then I thought again. Detroit's mayor SUCKS more than Nagin...well its a toss up.
That's cute! I'm an Australian, just yesterday I said to my husband 'the further from NO they take the evacuees the better their chances of becoming Americans are going to be' ... looks like what appeals to us terrifies some people!
Did Al dig that green one out?
Um, ... almost not worth commenting on other than to say that Rev.(?) Jackson ceased being relevant a long time ago, ... too many skeletons in his own closet. He should park his jet and donate the fuel money, ... a lot more would be accomplished. ... Jackson Lee is a Maxine Waters wannabe, ... the Rep. job is not so much about service as it it about ego stroking, circulating in certain circles, and "stylin'" in D.C. But that could be said about most of the D.C. politicos.
ROTFL!
I am trying to figure out how to pronounce that one!
Imagine the praise he would be giving the President were he Al Gore or John Kerry, or fellow playboy Clinton!
Thanks for the ping!
Refugee Jackson.
The re-education process has begun. Some may be converts to already after the outpouring of generosity they are being shown.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - In the last week, Joseph Brant lost his apartment, walked by scores of dead in the streets, traversed pools of toxic water and endured an arduous journey to escape the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in his hometown New Orleans.On Sunday, he was praising the Lord, saying the ordeal was a test that ended up dispelling his lifelong distrust of white people and setting his life on a new course. He said he hitched a ride on Friday in a van driven by a group of white folks.
"Before this whole thing I had a complex about white people; this thing changed me forever," said Brant, 36, a truck driver who, like many of the refugees receiving public assistance in Houston, Texas, is black.
Brant was one of many refugees across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi who gave thought to religion on Sunday, almost a week after the floods changed their lives, perhaps forever.
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