phoglund
Member
I must be the 50th guy. The last time a black guy asked me for support was about 2am rather than 3. He slept in my house that night and had breakfast the next morning with a few extra clothes and some travel money the next day. He said he was on the road with little money.
btw, I ran into that guy a couple of weeks later. He actually lived in the same town as I and had just been kicked out of the house for a while. I actually thought it was pretty funny I'd been so well hoodwinked.
Don't be so quick to judge the people around you, they may actually have hearts. My now deceased father in law was a great example. Always had derogatory comments about black folks and asians (He was a Pacific War Vet which explained his views on asians). But, this guy would give the shirt off his back to ANYBODY that needed help and ended up on his doorstep. Loud talk but a good heart.
Some of the views on this thread may seem a bit harsh and unfair. To characterize all the poor souls left in New Orleans one way or another is to view the situation a bit too simplistically. I'd imagine there were all sorts of people who stayed for all sorts of reasons. Some no doubt deserve the blame for their own misfortunes. Some were just foolish, some stupid, some merely playing the odds and some just plain unfortunate due to circumstances beyond their control.
A fundamental truth in this whole mess (It seems to my sharp and perceptive mind
) is that New Orleans was a city built in an untenable position. Some day an event such as this hurricane was going to hit this city and cause this kind of a disaster. The question was merely when. The only way to have prevented it was the expenditure of BILLIONS of taxpayer money to build a levy system capable of defeating any storm ever likely to come screaming out of the Gulf. The national priorty for Federal money was never to build these levees and the predictable result has occured.
How could the Federal or State government ever have justified the expenditure of the sums necessary to support the New Orleans in it's untennable location? Further, knowing this untenable positionnn, how can New Orleans as a city and Louisana as a state have not had plans to evacuate the entire city in the event of such an impending disaster? In my view the line of responsibility for protecting the people from such a potential disaster goes in this order, the individual people and the families themselves, the local city or county(parrish) government, the state government, the federal government. The responsibility only goes up the line when the lower level has done what was within their means and has been overwhelmed by circumstance. From what I can see, many of these individuals did not properly evaluate the risk and plan accordingly, the city/county (Parrish) did not, the state did not, and finally the Federal government did not properly evaluate the risk and plan accordingly. The Feds in my view do not bear the primary responsiblity for this disaster. The primary failing beyond individual responsibility should be put squarely on the shoulders of New Orleans itself. Perhaps the Mayor of New Orleans who unleashed a foul language diatribe at the Feds should look in the mirror for why his city dealt so poorly with this disaster.
All this is not important at this time however. There will be plenty of time for recriminations later. We have Americans dying needlessly within our own borders. Let's get them all the help they need irregardless of how they got where they are. We are the richest most powerful and compassionate country in the world. Let's save these people from their plight.
(My apologies for the length of this post.)
btw, I ran into that guy a couple of weeks later. He actually lived in the same town as I and had just been kicked out of the house for a while. I actually thought it was pretty funny I'd been so well hoodwinked.
Don't be so quick to judge the people around you, they may actually have hearts. My now deceased father in law was a great example. Always had derogatory comments about black folks and asians (He was a Pacific War Vet which explained his views on asians). But, this guy would give the shirt off his back to ANYBODY that needed help and ended up on his doorstep. Loud talk but a good heart.
Some of the views on this thread may seem a bit harsh and unfair. To characterize all the poor souls left in New Orleans one way or another is to view the situation a bit too simplistically. I'd imagine there were all sorts of people who stayed for all sorts of reasons. Some no doubt deserve the blame for their own misfortunes. Some were just foolish, some stupid, some merely playing the odds and some just plain unfortunate due to circumstances beyond their control.
A fundamental truth in this whole mess (It seems to my sharp and perceptive mind
) is that New Orleans was a city built in an untenable position. Some day an event such as this hurricane was going to hit this city and cause this kind of a disaster. The question was merely when. The only way to have prevented it was the expenditure of BILLIONS of taxpayer money to build a levy system capable of defeating any storm ever likely to come screaming out of the Gulf. The national priorty for Federal money was never to build these levees and the predictable result has occured.How could the Federal or State government ever have justified the expenditure of the sums necessary to support the New Orleans in it's untennable location? Further, knowing this untenable positionnn, how can New Orleans as a city and Louisana as a state have not had plans to evacuate the entire city in the event of such an impending disaster? In my view the line of responsibility for protecting the people from such a potential disaster goes in this order, the individual people and the families themselves, the local city or county(parrish) government, the state government, the federal government. The responsibility only goes up the line when the lower level has done what was within their means and has been overwhelmed by circumstance. From what I can see, many of these individuals did not properly evaluate the risk and plan accordingly, the city/county (Parrish) did not, the state did not, and finally the Federal government did not properly evaluate the risk and plan accordingly. The Feds in my view do not bear the primary responsiblity for this disaster. The primary failing beyond individual responsibility should be put squarely on the shoulders of New Orleans itself. Perhaps the Mayor of New Orleans who unleashed a foul language diatribe at the Feds should look in the mirror for why his city dealt so poorly with this disaster.
All this is not important at this time however. There will be plenty of time for recriminations later. We have Americans dying needlessly within our own borders. Let's get them all the help they need irregardless of how they got where they are. We are the richest most powerful and compassionate country in the world. Let's save these people from their plight.
(My apologies for the length of this post.)
Last edited:
