*VANITY* - Where do ~we~ stand in the wake of Katrina?

me | Sept 14, 2005 | HairOfTheDog

[HairOfTheDog]

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
~Martin Luther King Jr.

Yesterday as I sat and waited for an appointment with the director of a local agency for the homeless, I saw this quote on a poster on the wall. It's a great quote. I stared at it as I continued to think about the situation in New Orleans and the surrounding areas devastated by hurricane Katrina.

I've found the debate on Free Republic and elsewhere nearly intolerable in the wake of Katrina. As a political conservative with a long job history of helping the homeless and the poor, I have a much more complex view of people and poverty than some here. I am not one of those 'lucky' people who see only one small aspect of it and could therefore post quickly and sharply about what they saw. Those lucky people see losers who are receiving the deserved outcome for their poor decisions. They see lesser human beings and incompetent democrats as the simple and definable cause. It's not ~our~ problem, it's ~their~ problem.

When I looked at the faces of those people at the convention center, they were not foreign to me. I know them. I've spent years working with people who are poor and/or unemployed; some temporarily, some permanently…. Some good, and some very bad, and some still walking the line who could go one way or the other. They'll choose the path that looks like it will pay off. I've had impact at that moment of choice, in my work, and have helped some of my clients go the right way. Not all, but enough that I felt my desk and my job were not a waste of space and money. I learned a lot there.

I've learned from their stories that I had some things in common with them. I too, had spent some time being unemployed with a negative bank balance. I'd never sought help for it from some agency or charity, but that was because I had something they did not: A successful family and successful friends, who not only were there to help me when my life took a downturn, but also were there to expect more from me. These people, by and large, didn't have that. Many do not know anyone who ~is~ successful enough to help them. They may have seen successful people on TV, they may see them drive by in nice cars, but to the chronically poor those people look as foreign and hard to understand as street people do to the occupants of the nice cars. Neither sees the other as someone they could be. IMHO, they're both wrong.

But lets go back to the people in the nice cars for a minute, because they're the once I'm talking to now. The people posting on this forum who think they see the whole problem as the fault of the refugees. The ones that say it's not ~our~ problem, it's ~their~ problem. With that solved in their mind, they set out to post simple rants that make clear their view that they are superior to this problem, that they would never have been trapped the way the people at the convention center were. Those posters have seen all the conflicting images I have, but can file it neatly into their world view. They see only losers and looters, they see only people who they can't imagine being. And many punctuate their posts with simple racism that speaks more accurately than I would wish, of views that are still alive and well inside the republican voter base. To those whose only input is to classify this as a race issue I say you are not only outdated and shallow in your worldview, but unhelpful to those who will lead this country. You offer nothing we need.

I reject their views as not only wrong and uninformed, but as emotional and impractical as the world views often expressed by Jessie Jackson. To those who say these people are responsible for their own helplessness, or undeserving of help, I say "OK – close your eyes and think that. Now open them. Oops. They're still here. We still have to deal with the poor refugees of this storm. So now what?"

What do we do when we have to condemn an entire city and move them, willingly or not, somewhere else? It's easy to loathe the welfare programs these people have been living on when they were invisibly in the bad part of town…. Now the barrier that kept them from view is gone. The city that hid them from us has been condemned…. And man there's a lot of them.

I know well the people who will move in to help these people. They're good people, for the most part. I've worked with them and learned from them. When I was very new and conservatively naïve about charity and welfare and poor people, they told me the truth. The only difference between a social worker's outlook and the average suburban conservative's outlook is their assigned role in actually dealing with it. What the rest of us just opine about, they have in their inbox. They know who they're dealing with, they know which people can be helped, and they know which ones will not be helped. They help the ones they can, and they work their butts off and have a lot of good impact. I'm not talking about the leadership at these agencies, the ones who have to write grant proposals and talk in flowery language about helping the poor… And I'm certainly not talking about the pompous blaming bafflecrap we get from politicians. I'm talking about the front line workers… the ones who I've spent hours with, in break-rooms and in bars after hours, talking about our days.

Those who are very new to dealing with the poor often fit into one of two perspectives. They either(1) think that by classifying people as losers they have completed their participation in the subject, or they (2) think they want to help, and they think their acts of charity will be universally appreciated and accepted with the enthusiasm a stranded golden retriever would have toward their rescuer. These people aren't golden retrievers. They are people who bring with them such baggage as they could carry, often times the only baggage they have left is that they carry in their own minds. Some of them think life has been very unfair to them. And you know what? Some of them are right. These people have had a crappy thing happen to them with this storm.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
~Martin Luther King Jr.

These people have been tested, and are still being tested, by this challenge. Some have indeed reacted to the situation with utter incivility. The media loves to focus on them, and so we saw lots of looters. It's tempting in a crisis to focus on the one thing that is the most obvious, to the exclusion of everything else. As a pilot, I learned to avoid fixation and keep working the problem in emergency procedure drills, that fixation on one aspect of the problem can lead you to fail to deal with the rest of the emergency. Those lessons apply to this situation as well. Yes, we know there was a criminal element to this crisis. But also happening are other crises that don't stop happening just because we aren't looking at them. Real people who's real ability to get over this crisis is being tested. They need our help, and they are worthy of it. They aren't foreign to most of us, if we sat down and listened to what they have been through. I could be them. If I had been caught by this hurricane, this 'evacuation order' at many points in my life, I'd have been unable to consider, at a moment's notice, to pack up what I could carry and leave my home, perhaps indefinitely, without help from anyone. I am a republican, I am white, I am female, and I could be one of them.

What do we do now? As republicans, what do we offer these refugees? See, they are not the only ones being measured by this crisis, we are too. We want to lead this country, we ~are~ leading this country, and it's in our inbox.

I can tell you what I ~don't~ think we should do. I don't think we should talk down to these people or talk down about hurricane refugees as some class of people who all fit in the same box. Simply writing them off as the undesirables is not an option. That's WAY too easy to say, and solves nothing.

While the rest of the shallowly political on both sides argue and blame and say ugly things, I want conservatives to be measured as being better than that. The democrats in this country haven't had a good idea in years. Now is our chance to look at this enormous crisis with the practical, compassionate, Christian ideals that I know we possess. We need to pitch in and help, with both our effort, and our good example, and we should not tolerate those on either side who would put these refugees in a box, whether it's out of low expectations, or out of fear.

This has been a long rambling post, I know, for those who have stuck with me, but that's what I was thinking about as I stared at the Martin Luther King poster at the shelter.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
~Martin Luther King Jr.

[r135rr]

thanks for the post I Live here in Louisiana and witnessed first hand most of the stuff taking place..I am so angry about all the judgments and if i see one more pic of the school buses I am going to scream....we are one of the poorest states and New Orleans is one of the poorest cities in the country..there is no way with the mayor in a hotel with no phones and the cell phones out he could do much...I am not a fan of the Gov. but she was limited by limited communications. We evacuated 700,000 plus in 2 days i put that up against any city anywhere with only five routes out of town.

[kingu]

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
~Martin Luther King Jr.

Excellent words and words that ring well in my heart.

While there were those who were were critical of government response, I was critical of the response of those most affected by the tragedy. Those who wanted to know what would be done for them, when they would be provided homes, when they would be paid, when they would be helped.

In a twisted form of reality, those people will be helped most and benefit least from that help.

Black, white, yellow or red - it doesn't matter. There were poor and rich from all groups. But those who insist on waiting for others to do the job are contrary to the ideals I've always held true to heart in America. You do what needs to be done, you don't stand around and await laurels for it, you just do it.

We saw through the media not a city of fishermen, but a city of folks with plates waiting for the BBQ to be served. Yes, you can be overwhelmed by events - I've seen this many a time while responding to disaster areas with the Red Cross. I've also seen folks threaten physical violence because dinner isn't being served fast enough by volunteers who get to eat when everyone else is done. I've had folks come up to me to complain that the trash cans aren't being emptied fast enough.

Like all things in life, our personal experiences color our viewpoints. Mine have been soured by the raw reality of people. It doesn't matter about their race or their economic status, they can all degrade to the same point.

I told the complainer where the trash bags were, where the bin was, and to do it himself. I temporarily closed a food line to have the volunteers deliver trays of food around the shelter to the elderly and those unable to stand in line. For these actions, I was encouraged to leave my efforts for someone else to take on since I was obviously racist; I was serving white elderly folks and making blacks starve. I was telling a hispanic man to do the work of volunteers.

When I see the Astrodome, I have a secret desire in my heart to not see a herd of refugees, but rather the largest gathering of volunteers to help those who truly need help. My secret desires aren't coming true, leadership no matter what the race or culture has failed to demand it.

A person who evacuated posted on her journal that she was concerned for an elderly fellow down the way from her apartment. She wanted to know what news there was of him. I was verbally attacked by her and her friends (of which I once considered myself) when I asked why she didn't take him with her. He obviously wouldn't be evacuating himself; at the very least she could have driven him to a shelter.

It wasn't her responsibility. It was the government, others who should do the job. It was her responsibility, I replied, as a human being, to see to the needs of others, especially those whom she cared for.

I understand what you're saying, that folks aren't displaying enough compassion. I doubt there is a person on this board who isn't compassionate towards an elderly person or someone who has a physical disability. If aid could be directed solely towards folks like these, I bet the outpouring of money would be incredible.

I've dealt with many a homeless person - a story often told by others with similar experiences - eventually people come to the reality that there is a population that wants to live on the street. So you try to direct your efforts towards those who want to escape, who want help, but also those who are willing to work towards their escape. Without that willingness, all you are doing is putting a homeless person on vacation at a hotel.

A reporter in Pass Christian asked a man why he was cutting up a tree that had fallen across a road. "Why not wait until the government gets here to clean up the mess?" The man shook his head, "My town, my responsibility. They want to help, they can do what I can not - rebuild the hospital, help with founding new schools. In the mean time, I'll handle this little stuff while they do the important work." Maybe this is urban legend, maybe not, but this is an American, doing the job of an American. These are the folks I'd like to give money to, since I know they'll use it for what is needed, not for what is wanted.

I have every respect for what work you've done, and for making this vanity. I disagree with you on some opinions, agree with others. If you can change some of the minds of those who are sitting comfortably and tossing random pot shots, great. But in reality, what needs to be done is a rally call, not here, but in every shelter holding those who have been displaced. Help those who can't help themselves, do what needs to be done, and don't stand around for applause.

This can be a wonderful opportunity or just a side trip through the world of poverty. New schools, new places - the cycle was broken and it remains to be seen if folks will get off their treadmills and help themselves. If not, they can stay in the box that others have defined for them, demonstrating how right those critics were about their morales and initiatives as Americans.

[HairOfTheDog]

The suffering people of New Orleans WERE betrayed, but not by circumstances, or society, or the nation, of the Bush Administration. They were betrayed much closer to home, by people they entrusted with their welfare. That is a central fact you need to deal with. You haven't even mentioned it.

Certainly you don't expect me to state and solve the entire spectrum of social problems with ONE post. I thought the vanity was too long for most to want to read as it was!

So far, I am dealing with our side. We agree on the other side.

[r135rr]

thanks for the post I Live here in Louisiana and witnessed first hand most of the stuff taking place..I am so angry about all the judgments and if i see one more pic of the school buses I am going to scream....we are one of the poorest states and New Orleans is one of the poorest cities in the country..there is no way with the mayor in a hotel with no phones and the cell phones out he could do much...I am not a fan of the Gov. but she was limited by limited communications. We evacuated 700,000 plus in 2 days i put that up against any city anywhere with only five routes out of town.

[HairOfTheDog]

We disagree on how much the local government could and should have done to aid their citizens. I think they did poorly, and did not even implement their own disaster plan. But I do agree, that even with good planning, there still would have been a hurricane, and it still would have been bad. Sometimes, there just are disasters no one could foresee.

[Congressman Billybob]

By the way, I too was very sad to hear that two fine members of the FR community had left. I counted both as friends, and respected their judgment and work. I gather they left without posting an opus.

So they were as classy in leaving as they were in participating. I wish I had known. I would have added my voice to several here, to say that they were not just good for this forum, they were essential.

John / Billybob

[jude24]

You need to take of your rose-colored glasses. And soon.

Idealism tempered by realism is not "rose-colored glasses." It is fatalism to assume that the way things now are is the way things always must be.

A little idealism is a good thing. It tells us the way things should be, and realizes that the imperfections in the world today need always be there. It is not a good thing to say that "That's the way things are, so grow up and accept it."

The simple facts of the matter are that this hurricaine hit the poor especially hard - and those poor were often (though not exclusively) black. It oversimplifies things to say that this is due to the welfare state - that may be a contributing factor, but not all of the poor hurricaine victims you see there were on welfare. Many were working poor. There's a lot of people out there who work hard, and just can't afford a car. Heck, if my parents didn't help me out a lot through school, I'd be one of them.

That, I think, is HOTD's point - sometimes we conservatives tend to act as though the cause of poverty is often some moral failing on the part of the poor. That certainly is sometimes true, but just as often, it's just because people are not blessed with the support network that allows them to get started and help them out when they fall on hard times. If my parents weren't able to help me out financially, I would not be able to go to law school. Opportunities often come to those whose families help them take them.

[r135rr]

I agree actually the superdome evacuation was a success if there had been security and If there had been a better plan to get them out after the levee broke I think things were successful until the levee broke....you have to understand before the hurricane when we're evacuating there is no fema no major red cross presence, no airplanes. You can't make people get on buses with no place to go and no money...If anything good comes of this there needs to be a Rapid Response Unit of Fema for situations like this..

[HairOfTheDog]

Yours is obviously an informed post. I can tell who has been there. I too, looked among the faces of the convention center and longed for them to organize and self govern that site. They couldn't make water appear, but they could keep garbage picked up and maintain order. They certainly outnumbered the thugs that were terrorizing them, but they waited and the mess got worse. The imperfection of real life is a common frustration of mine. Thank you.

[HairOfTheDog]

That, I think, is HOTD's point - sometimes we conservatives tend to act as though the cause of poverty is often some moral failing on the part of the poor. That certainly is sometimes true, but just as often, it's just because people are not blessed with the support network that allows them to get started and help them out when they fall on hard times.

That certainly was part of my point. :~D

That and that saying it's their own damn fault for being poor and in the path of the storm is both unfair, and unhelpful. It doesn't change the fact that you still have to deal with them. Now what?

[Uncle Joe Cannon]

I saw a clip (on the local news) of an angry woman from the Astrodome, bitterly complaining about how lousy the food was there. There were other interviews of general griping.

It is hard to keep open a generous heart in the face of things like that... but I think it might be our challenge from God. Sometimes I feel like I am losing that challenge, sad to say. Sometimes I feel like saying "F' 'em".

[grame]

Thank you, it was just what I was thinking. People entrusted with the welfare of many, making decisions seemingly by playing political games.

[r135rr]

yeah I agree they could have went on the cruise ship maybe the food would be better.. but I would hate to think about being in the astrodome for 2 weeks with not much hope of getting out soon.

[eureka!]

Say it ain't so. If so, I can understand. There is yet a lot of work to do. Give it time and come back. Please don't let a few tarnish so many....

[atomicpossum]

Do you think the media will cover the folks who just take their meal and eat it gratefully? No, not likely. It's hard to keep in mind that what is shown in a camera lens is an isolated view, but it's important to do so.

[Uncle Joe Cannon]

Where I have a hard time feeling sympathy is the fact that I have planned for emergencies. I am not rich by any means, but I have saved. I have planned for contingencies. I don't eat out at McD's for lunch everyday, buy the latest stereo equipment, etc.

I think people need to be taught certain basic life skills far more than they need to be given handouts, taught "Heather Has Two Mommies", etc.

[HairOfTheDog]

If you ask a bunch of people who have lost everything, who are sitting in one crowded shelter dome, after being moved there from another one, how things are going, they're probably going to complain.

Some of them need a dose of tact. but I bet few of us would be in better humor after the hell they've been through, the least of which, I might add, was the hurricane.

I'm not saying the media should hide the griping and portray only the good, warm fuzzy appreciative and happy people. That's not the truth either.

But I have to wonder why they choose some of the focus they ~do~ choose.

[kingu]

It is hard to keep open a generous heart in the face of things like that... but I think it might be our challenge from God. Sometimes I feel like I am losing that challenge, sad to say. Sometimes I feel like saying "F' 'em".

The Sun Herald is a good place to read stories about folks doing what needs to be done rather than just whining; though of course the whining articles can appear there too. I usually look at the bylines to see if it one of the paper's authors or some hack from one of the wire services.

It is publications like this that give me some hope for humanity.

[PGalt]

Outstanding post. Thanks.

[HairOfTheDog]

Thank you!