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."
Moving out to other areas could be a blessing in disguise for some of these folks!
Ann
...Is that a word?
"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."
They must be rebuilt only if they decide to return, which would be up to them. I hope they take this disaster and turn it into something positive for their lives.
Jackson and company are already worried about the concentration of dem votes in the area. POS.
"Yes Rep Jackson Lee, I agree. The welfare state has most definitely failed."
Perhaps she will introduce the treaty to end the quagmire of the War on Poverty. We have fought this war since 1964 and have as many poor now as when it was declared.
nothing jackson (both of them) say means anything anymore. They have both proven to be the ultimate in losers. Losing their grip I think.
The more Jessie Jacka$$ speaks the dumber he gets. I just wish someone would tell him to shut up.
Send some of them to Mogadishu where they should fit right in,at least the Jacksonites and Sharptoneese should.
Oh, I pith on him, alright!
Imagine how much trouble a person would get in if he suggested sending the "refugees" to Africa.
Just doesn't sound like it coming from him :^
I suspect that a look through the Lexis-Nexis database or even Google would reveal that Jackson and/or his Rainbow-PUSH organization have repeatedly referred to people as refugees, most especially with reference to Kosovo, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, or Haiti. Moreover, it'd be interesting to see if he's ever publicly opined against the use of the word refugee in the past.
Note to Jesse: We - the American people - really do not care what you say or how you say it or how many times you say it. You are a racist bigot who is currently irrelevant.
Thanks - I feel better for having said that.
At least I've learned a new word today . . . . I think.
BTW, what is Al Green doing in that pic?
Refugee - a person who has escaped from their own country for political, religious or economic reasons or because of a war
______________________________________________________________________________________
Refugees or Evacuees?
Sept 3, 2005 - Atlanta, GA -- I was watching CNN's Jeff Koinange this morning as he reported the news from New Orleans. Koinange described the situation in New Orleans as something similar to a "refugee camp" in a Third World country. But a lot of people on this site and elsewhere have complained about the term "refugee" in describing the newly homeless victims of Hurricane Katrina, so I thought I would look into it.
In some ways I agree with the criticism of the term "refugee," but in other ways I do not. Originally, I thought it was odd that the media chose to describe the evacuees from New Orleans as "refugees." That is a term I had normally associated with people in other countries. But I looked up the word in the dictionary and it describes a refugee as "one that flees," which seems to me to apply to the evacuees in the Gulf Coast.
A more detailed definition from the dictionary described a refugee as a person who flees, "especially to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution."
Given the definition of the word, I disagree with what Rep. Diane Watson said at the Congressional Black Caucus press conference this week, when she criticized the media use of the term "refugee." In fact, I think our resistance to the use the term "refugee" when referring to Americans is problematic.
"'Refugee' calls up to mind people that come from different lands and have to be taken care of," said Watson. "These are American citizens," she said. The assumption in the argument seems to suggest that foreigners can be refugees, but Americans cannot. That assumption raises troubling issues of xenophobia, cultural imperialism and linguistic hypocrisy. Given those issues, I think the use of the term "refugee" makes sense in this case.
But that's not the end of the analysis. If the mostly black evacuees in New Orleans are described as "refugees" but the mostly white evacuees from other parts of the Gulf Coast are described differently, then there's a problem of racial disparity. Once we start to use the term "refugee" to apply to Americans, we cannot do so selectively. But I could find no conclusive evidence to prove that is happening. Instead, the media seem to be using the terms "refugee" and "evacuee" somewhat interchangeably.
I did a Google News search for "New Orleans" and "refugee" and found 2,940 articles. I did another search for "Mississippi" and "refugee" and found 1,430 entries. Similarly, when I searched "Alabama" and "refugee," I found 1,110 news stories. The disparity in the number of listings between New Orleans and the other areas may reflect the increased attention focused on the Big Easy in the news coverage overall. But based on the numbers from the Google searches, it would seem to me that the media are using the term "refugee" to apply to all the evacuees along the Gulf Coast, not just to the blacks.
http://www.keithboykin.com/arch/001472.html
I don't know, if it makes him get dumber maybe he should keep talking. ;)
Jesse Jackson... This WHITE woman in Texas has been with 400 of the newest residents to our fine town the last 24 hours since they arrived in our city. I have hugged them, cried with them, prayed with them, changed diapers, feed families, single people, drug addicts, criminals, children who have lost their parents, wiped young mommas tears, listened to their stories of the last 7 days. We have clothed them opened our hearts and homes to them......
They are now 900 miles from N.O. in West Texas and almost all of them said, they love the people here and the weather and the wide open spaces of our vast lands. One told me we have enough room to put 50 Superdomes in our great state.... and the sky is so bright with stars and new hope......
SO JESSE JACKSON.... This white person from Lubbock Tx has ZERO tolerance for your words and lack of knowlege of what people from the great state of Texas will be doing with these people of God. And yes, a few of them were the ones that had new luggage with them and brand new nikes. However my community has turned the other cheek and is doing what Jesus told us to do.
BUMP!
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