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.
Yet for all that it offers, it is also a trap.
How about doing what many Asian and Central American immigrant families do and have several families pitch in and share a car?
Once on the gravy train, always on the gravy train.
Bush's fault.
Why don't they just give their kids a big hug and explain how lucky they are instead of b*tching about something so petty as this? People like this make me sick, "More, more, more..."
Where is this women's car? Did she not have one before Katrina? If she had one, then she should have loaded it up and left before the hurricane. If she never had a car, then I have no sympathy. Does the poor, poor pitiful me ever stop? How much does the federal government have to give these people?
So no one is grown up enough to be glad that they survived disaster and have a safe place to live? No. They have to have purchased gifts.
Huh. I bought a new house last year and guess what kind of gifts I will be giving? That's right, the ones that I make.
Give them all a new car to go with their new home. Its AMERICA land of the free. Free homes, freecars, free paychecks.
Our forefathers walked through feet of snow, uphill... both ways... to get an education because it mattered to them. These whiny malcontents can't get off their duffs to walk a half-hour to a bus stop therefore their kids may not get Christmas?!?!
This is news!
And you can bet the TV station didn't just stumble across her, SHE must have called them to whine on the local news and hope for more freebies.
You mean to tell me that FEMA didn't buy everyone a new car?
I think she should have to walk to the bus stop and back everyday or she doesn't get her "free ride"!
You can't decorate for Christmas unless you have a tree? That's the only thing you can do? This is just ridiculous.
Oh the horrors of it all...having to walk a whole 30 minutes!!
And it's pretty sick that the TV station helps her beg.
Would it kill her to walk 30 minutes to the bus stop?
Stringing popcorn is cheap and it doesn't take a cab ride to get it home.
Whatever happened to being grateful for what you have and not upset because of what you don't have?
Oh yeah, people used to government cheese are actually quite skilled at portraying themselves as helpless. They also know "which line to stand in" for all the freebies.
Its quite a skillset.....what they don't realize is with those skills, they could provide much better for their families at a real job.....'course that would mean commitment and responsibility.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.