Posted on 12/10/2005 3:30:51 PM PST by Crackingham
With jazz music, prayer and offerings to the gods, hundreds of Hurricane Katrina survivors on Saturday demanded the government move faster to rebuild the city and provide evacuees with more disaster assistance. Shouting "We're Back," protesters said they feared the city's poor would be shut out of reconstruction after being dispersed far across the United States since the storm. City officials estimate more than 300,000 New Orleans residents have yet to return since Katrina flooded the city, reducing entire neighborhoods to a rubble-strewn wasteland.
In one of the largest rallies in New Orleans since the hurricane, survivors marched to City Hall from Congo Square, a centuries-old meeting place where African slaves once gathered to trade, play music and dance. African drummers and a brass band dubbed the "Soul Rebels" set the carnival-like tone, while a tribal priest made an offering of rum and watermelon.
"I lived in my house for 45 years -- my mother died and left it to me," said Gloria Brown, 70, an evacuee living in San Francisco. "I swam seven blocks in filthy water with my dog Queenie to survive. I want to come back but I can't pay for it."
The federal government is providing varying amounts of assistance to evacuees to cover temporary housing and living expenses. But some evacuees said they have not yet received any money.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has held meetings with evacuees living in places like Alabama or Mississippi to gather their ideas about how to rebuild the city. City and state officials have yet to determine how to rebuild a faulty levee system that created the flooding, a key decision for insurers and lenders financing the reconstruction. Some hurricane evacuees said there should be less talk and more action.
"Right now they're treating us like refugees," said Mervin Lucas. "They're worried about health in Afghanistan, the cold in Pakistan. They're giving folks in Iraq better things than they're giving us."
Rally organizers accused the city of discriminating against black residents by moving slowly on rebuilding, particularly in low-income areas that were hardest hit, after failing to rescue them quickly in the days following the storm.
"It's no secret the rich white folks uptown don't want us back," said Malcolm Suber, a protest leader with the grass-roots People's Hurricane Relief Fund. "This government left us to starve and to die."
Wait till they found out what the REST of us think!
ROFLMAO..........this thread is making me laugh as hard as the Richard Pryor one.
Despicable comic book characters like Suber exploit noble monickers like 'People's Hurricane Relief Fund' to steal from the U.S. government, then are given a platform to spew idiotic lies by junk "news" outlets like Reuters?
I don't know who's more disgraceful.
LOL!
Therefore you and I must, apparently. There is no difference between this and a stickup in the street, but there are very few people who have the courage to say it.
"They're giving folks in Iraq better things than they're giving us."
I keep forgetting that the sole purpose of government is to "give" things to people.
Rally organizers accused the city of discriminating against black residents by moving slowly on rebuilding,
Nothing like people who don't understand the meaning of the word "insurance."
particularly in low-income areas that were hardest hit,
I love to watch conservative parody lines come to life.
after failing to rescue them quickly in the days following the storm.
Nothing like people who don't understand the meaning of the term "evacuate" either.
Do not besmirch Richad Pryor's name by associating him with Bill Clinton.
Right of return? I didn't know we were banning former residents from ever coming back.
The reason for rap's massive popularity are now clear to me.
After the elections.
Always about us giving and them demanding more.
Always about us giving and them demanding more.
To those who appreciate all that was done for them and want to be productive Texans I say you are welcome to stay. To the remaining ungrateful assclowns I say vacate my state immediately.
Yeppers...I have never been rich...and never lived "uptown"...but, I wouldn't want them back...if all they want is a return to the same subsidized housing...with people that don't take pride in doing things for themselves...
And I don't care WHAT COLOR the people are..
I've been looking for a Texan to ask this question: how is it going down there with the evacuees?
Well, bless your heart. It is so compassionate of you to laugh at folks who want to return to their homes they have lived in for generations.
My word, the only thing they have to do is get up on poles and restore power, sanitize their drinking water, haul away tons of garbage in their backpacks and restore their homes full of mold and damage.
Why, those lazy dogs do not even deserve a helping hand, do they? After all, it's just white folks who are smart enough to do so, right?
I live in southeast Missouri and I can recall the damage of the 1973 flood, the 500 year one. I don't recall all the harping of folks here who resented fed dollars being spent to repair the damage to our cities effected.
And the black residents of NO probably do have a complaint. I have long felt that the government (city, state and fed) have determined that NO will be built for corporate interests and not for the residents.
Whining, crack-headed, blood-sucking useless t*rds...
It's no wonder the "rich white folks uptown" don't want 'em. Well, I don't want 'em in my neighborhood, and I'm not one of the "rich white folks uptown", either.
Let 'em go to Hyannisport and set up tents and bellyache around Teddy's Compound. Or just let 'em starve, beg or go to jail. I could care less which. This country would be better off without them.
Southwest Airlines:
SFO to Nashville: $135
Nashville to New Orleans: $61
Yeah, I don't know how anyone can afford that.
Then find yourself a job, a place to stay and get to cleaning up your house.
I didn't hear of the white folks that were displaced screaming racism and demanding things.
I agree. Help out the elderly who lost everything by pointing them to the various non profits, help is out there. However, to the able bodied whiners, do like the illegals have done, go in and take advantage of the jobs and do the work yourself.
They're getting a helping hand -- it's just not as fast as they want it or as MUCH as they want it. And they not the least bit appreciative of what WE are having to pay for.
Where was HER insurance? Or did she not know she was living BELOW SEA LEVEL? It was an act of God, for goodness sakes; we don't OWE her anything except to do the best job we can as soon as we can.
Quite frankly -- and in case you haven't noticed -- a lot of people are sick and tired of the whining and LIES coming from these people. It's bad enough that they are demanding BETTER than they lived before, but we who are going to end up paying for this have to listen to their continual CARPING about how bad they have it -- and to their LIES about "white people" deliberately letting this happen to them because they are black (see this week's Congressional hearings regarding white people bombing the leeves.)
I live in North Carolina, so don't lecture me about hurricanes; we've had more than you'll ever dream of having; but one thing you don't hear is the people of OUR state on TV whining about how we're not getting the government to replace something we didn't care enough to INSURE.
Your post is racist in tone and I damn well don't appreciate it. I bet I'm not the only one.
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