Posted on 11/29/2005 4:39:00 AM PST by Flyer
With Christmas around the corner, a group of Katrina evacuees worry they can't give the holiday to their kids.
Hauling home a Christmas tree is at least a $30 cab ride.
For Sheryl Lee whose New Orleans home was destroyed, her brand new house is a "dream come true," she said as she wiped tears from her eyes.
Yet for all that it offers, it is also a trap.
"No way to get to a shopping or nothing," Lee said.
The Clarke Springs subdivision, with its neat rows of humble homes, sits outside the beltway. The nearest Metro bus stop is a 30-minute walk.
Sheryl and her neighbors, all Katrina evacuees placed by the city of Houston, do not own cars.
"It's not close by too many things. So far out," said Colette Montgomery, Katrina evacuee.
Neighbors believe at least 40 Katrina families live in the Clarke Springs subdivision. What they're worried about now is whether they can provide Christmas for their kids.
Like all kids, Sheryl's 9-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son love Christmas, but look around and you won't find a single decoration because hauling home a tree is at least a $30 cab ride.
"And that kind of money I don't have right now," Lee said.
With no car, not only is a job hard to come by, so is Christmas.
"Although they [children] lost everything they had once before, but I could try to get them just a little of it. Might not be all, but it's a little," said Lee.
That is great. She will look forward to adult life with a beautiful smile.
That is probably not correct. Their are a couple of stations here in Houston that spend all of their time "trolling for tragedy". I've actually seen them in action. They will spend 30 minutes taping someone, 29 minutes and 30 seconds will be positive, thankful or hopeful and the 30 seconds that is negative will be on the air as a lead story. Disgusting hardly describes it accurately.
Twenty years ago, I was laid off of my job and I had no car. The nearest place I could shop for Christmas presents (or do any shopping at all) was almost exactly a 30 minute walk, one way.
I would lace up my Pumas and make a day of it, walking to the mall, shopping, and then walking back.
One day, as I walked home from doing my shopping, loaded down with Christmas presents, a smartalick teenager in a passing car screamed "BUM! Hobo! Get a job!" at me. At first, I was startled. Then, I chuckled. I must have looked like a hobo, walking beside the road carrying 4 shopping bags.
I take it this person had no car insurance.
If she had car insurance, start banging on the head of the insurance guy and get your check for your car. If you failed to have car insurance before the hurricane, well boo hoo. Your bad. Dumb move. No sympathy.
Go buy a car for Christmas. With your check from the insuance company, you should be out car hunting. I am sure you were not so dumb as to not have car insurance.
I take it they had insurance on their home. She needs to start banging on the head of the insurance guy and get her check for her home.
If she failed to have homeowners insurance before the hurricane, well boo hoo. Your bad. Dumb move. No sympathy.
Stupidity should never be rewarded but condemned. This person had free public schools to attend in her life, and she had community colleges to go to to get a better education, even if she did not get an education at a four year good university. She also had the Internet to get a certification from to get better educated so she could have afforded a home, a car, Christmas toys, and car insurance and homeowners insurance.
No sympathy from me, lady. More like outrage that my tax dollars are wealth transferred to slugs who have no desire to educate and help themselves, but just sob for more gimmee gimmee dollars. Take your sob story elsewhere.
Watching the video, I see cars in the driveways of many of the homes. Do you think they could ask a neighbor for a ride, instead of going on TV and whining??
What are the chances that there's a "dad?"
Of course, you know that didn't begin with Katrina. It happens every day on a scale that would shock every taxpayer (henceforth known as the "host organism").
Well, you forget who's POTUS. Now if tis had been under, say, Clinton or Carter...
A "dad?" What is the meaning of the strange term, "dad?"
I know nothing about this woman and I don't assume to know. Not everyone is resourceful and good at problem solving. It just seems like it may be problem with a fairly easy solution. I made a suggestion instead of an immediate reaction to poo-poo her situation.
btw - My immediate reaction to her Christmas tree dilemma, was that she should buy a small fake tree, it's light and easy to carry.
These kind of people will NEVER be satisfied.
Oh, good grief. Cry me a river.
I think this is a case of a reporter manufacturing a news story, not someone looking for a forum to complain in. We have no way of knowing how Ms. Lee's words were edited to paint a more dire picture.
I think most of the Katrina evacuees, including the subjects of this story, are still worthy of our help. I urge everyone to donate to Toys for Tots - the USMC does a wonderful job - or to a charity of your choice.
We all walked 30 minutes plus EVERY SCHOOL DAY to school for eight years, one day when it was 21 below zero. (They did not cancel school for snow and cold in the 1960s in Ohio). From 6 years old to 13 years old, every damn school day--30 minutes plus to school, 30 minutes plus back home from school. Want to know another thing? Not one car ever picked up any kid. Not one! Every kid walked to school. The school had over 1200 kids.
Somehow, stupidty and lazines got this bitch to live in New Orleans, to not leave before the hurricane hit, etc. I bet if we had the full "dossier" on this rip off artist, we woudl have a field day with her life story.
That's true. They could have known where there was a concentration of evacuees and gone and set bait.
I saw Oprah the other day when she gave 50 or so hurricane families a "free house." They visited the land where the new homes are to be built and showed the houseplans.
I hope she does a follow-up show showing how this new neighborhood looks after the people have been living there for about five years.
If they're all like the woman featured in this story, I can't imagine how awful the neighborhood will look.
ww
Gratitude is the most fleeting of emotions. Now she thinks that the government should buy her a car, pay for the gas and insurance and hire a driver.
I don't know if was learned as much as it was inherited...I am %100 Polish LOL. No lace curtains though...my wife wouldn't stand for them. ;)
Perhaps she could invest thirty dollars in a ride to the department of labor to fill out an application.
The PC crowd has gone overboard for these people. YES, there are some out there that are genuinely grateful for what they have been given (or should I say handed)but, they are few and far between.
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