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.
Only a true socialist could see this. Its just like feeding wildlife until they forget how to forage. Of course with wildlife bad things happen when they stop being cute and start demanding. Oh, is there a parallel there?
Ok, so why doesn't she ask the taxi driver to stop by the Christmas tree lot on her way home from work.... oh, never mind, getting a job would mean getting off her welfare butt.
People like this piss me off. I brought a 92 Buick LeSabre w/100k miles on it for $799 3 years ago, I put about $250 into it initially. Its stil running fine with 170k miles on it now. For a car that is taking me to work and back, I'd say its a good deal. Of course I do all the maintenance and repairs myself though.
I guess there is no one, not a single soul in the neighborhood, that would take her to a Christmas tree lot??
She's just fishing for free stuff.
I know the city has been generous already, but what would it take to have a city bus that isn't being used on a Saturday or even a school bus, to drive these people into town once a week so they can do their shopping? Maybe they could each chip in $2 or something.
That FEMA money coulda' bought more than a few very, very nice bicycles. A bike ride to cover ground that otherwise is a "thirty minute walk" is only about ten minutes and it's fun. Most public transportation allows passengers to lock a bike onto a carrier on the bus, and you can just, literally, bike to a stop and from a stop to any destination afterward.
With a basket and bike lock, you're all set for modest necessity shopping. And that INCLUDES a 3-foot Christmas tree, and several of the tiny ones.
This woman is just complaining to complain, is still stuck in the self-pity cycle that prevents her from seeing all the wonderful, miraculous gifts she has been given: a new home (!!), her children, Christmas (thanks, Jesus Christ), her life, all for great big starters.
The lady is just self-pitying. I'm aghast at all the immense blessings she seems impervious to.
He was dumb enough to take the blame.
Sounds like an amazing opportunity for a FReeper with a PU truck and trailer. Load it up with trees and cruise the hood like the ice cream vendors.
When it comes to Christmas for my kids I think I would manage that 30 minute walk to the bus. Buy a 10.00 artifical tree and make it happen.
Sounds like some enterprising teens could find new job venues. . .how about; the truck comes in; loaded with trees and they buy one. . .right in front of their house or in their driveway!
How about, RENT or lease a SUV for the weekend - or longer . . .and the 'displaced' share the cost; while they all go shopping. . .together. . .or by turn. . .or some teens provide 'taxi' type rides for 'less than union rates'. . .
WHATever;
I am over Katrina and the myriad of problems. . .or at least some of them.
They are the spawn of Satan.
It might not kill her to walk however i feel as if the kids are the ones who are going to be hurt because at the age they wont realize why mom and dad can't get them anything for Christmas.
She and her peers have been given NEW HOMES. For Heaven's sake, NEW HOMES. In a nice, new suburban neighborhood.
A shopping shuttle does not even begin to break even for a $2.00 per passenger fare. Not even begins to. And, thus, taxpayers fund them.
Her city certainly has a Senior Shuttle service...maybe she can get incentivized ("must buy Christmas tree") and ask the City to organize a one-time Holiday Shuttle service for the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the woman does not seem to be problem solving but self-pitying. She needs motivation.
'course you'd have to unload it, take it in the house AND decorate it (maybe even supply a couple of wrapped gifts) all for charity.
Yeah, but this lady is hoping for a free tree, and gifts for the kids, too.
Boo f'in hoo. The horrors.
their mental thought needs some tweaking.
I have been thinking about this article, I know a lot of people in the Houston area have become "tired" of dealing with the huge influx of people after the storm. I just wonder if they did this article intentionally to work on the feelings of people who are getting a little upset about them.
A lot of them have been given so much that they may well be wearing out their welcome now, I wonder if the reporters did this intentionally to show people that a lot of them don't need as much now as they act like they do.
This woman and her family have a new house and a new life and she can't be grateful?
What about all three walk the 30 minutes as an "adventure" to shop and tell her kids that the greatest Christmas gift was the generosity of strangers and a new home and new opportunities for a better life!
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