Some people are so cruel and heartless. The follow comments are summeries of things I've heard people I know say recently on rebuilding in the Katrina disaster:
...I know that they have a lot of culture down there but they still shouldn't rebuild....
....If they are going to live down there then they are just basically asking for it...
...All of our money is going down there, I'll move down there if it means I get free money....
...I'm tired of hearing about it all, it's been a month let's just "move on..."
...Let's rebuild the French Quarter and the downtown business district but limit the rebuilding in the outlying areas (GOI: Which of course are the predominately poor areas)...
...I don't think we should be sending all of that money down there because there is too much risk of fraud...
GOI: Nice, huh? These comments are all coming from so called "Christians."
---End of Transmission---
7 comments:
I don't think I would quite say any of the things you quote, but there is something to the sentiment that isn't heartless. I HAVE said that I think there is something a little tricky about rebuilting a city that is subject to mighty hurricanes and is beneath sea level at a time when ice caps are melting and the Carribean is likely to be warmer due to global warming.
Also, consider for a moment just how much $200Billion is! With it, you can give $200,000 to each of one million people!!
It may sound heartless, but it should be observed that people lose everything and are made homeless all the time -- they just don't do it on CNN.
I am all for helping the people who were devestated in the path of the recent hurricanes -- but I don't know that the location of New Orleans lends itself to being a location for a city any more than it makes sense to built a new city at the base Mt. St. Helens.
In Sacramento, where I am, there are housing developments in the paths of flood zones. [Sac'to has levees to hold back the American River.] People who live in these houses are required to have insurance in case of a flood. I think there are things that should be done and shouldn't be done in light of where New Orleans is.
One last thing: The French Quarter and downtown district are distinctive BECAUSE THEY ARE ABOVE SEA LEVEL. They weren't flooded by Rita.
Tom:
Well, I think that they will rebuild the area regardless. There are just too many people for one that have been displaced. We can not force them to live elsewhere.
If they want to move back to the area then I think we should do everything we can to help them live in a safer N.O. without getting rid of HUGE portions of the city.
Hell yes we can force people to live elsewhere! Immanent domain; sorry, folks, but your property is now part of the Gulf. THIS would be a rare and very proper instance of immanent domain; mother nature has spoken, flooding the city twice in a month's time.
New Orleansians will be taken care of and compensated copiously; we needn't worry. The benefits of losing it all on CNN.
one of my neighbors (a very devout women, church at least twice a week, you know the drill) said "they're coming up there" several weeks ago, about katrina refugees. she didn't sound happy about it. maybe i was misreading.
personally i'd love to see folks in need of healing spend some time in the blue ridge mountains - it's a very special place and i really do think there's something in the air (other than smog and ozone.)
as far as rebuilding goes, i wish i could believe that we're competent and imaginative enough as a society to build a safe place on the gulf for noleans to begin again. but competence and imagination are sorely lacking in what i see these days. zen unbound has some salient points, esp about flood insurance, but insurers don's push it for folks outside of flood zones - and some of those folks lost their homes, too.
i have been surprised to find myself in complete agreement lately with some fiscal conservatives - for different reasons. i'm not worried about fraud from individuals - but i'm very concerned about corporate fraud, no-bid contracts, and a governmental culture completely lacking in accountability (and, it seems, common sense.)
no easy answers.
Tom:
I'm sorr but (in my opinion) the minute you start forcing people to live else where you are engaging in totalitarianism. Americans have the right and freedom to live where ever they choose. I strongly disagree with you on this issue.
You CAN not just bull doze one of the countries most historic cities in my opinion.
I know that I would not be happy to be displaced FOREVER from my home here in Colorado. I would be furious if they dozed most of Denver.
Remember last year when all the hurricanes hit Florida? We weren't talking about forcing people to move from there low-lying homes and just wiping out whole cities for good.
The Dutch have shown us that protecting areas that lie below sea level is possible if well-funded and well planned.
Maybe I am a hopeless optimist because I love that city very much. I have been down there 3 times now to visit in-laws and I just can not imagine America without New Orleans. It is like imagining America without New York or San Francisco.
I am sorry but I just do not think they are not going to rebuild this great city.
Jessica:
I have to disagree with you here. I think that we DO have the imagination and the innovation to rebuild a levee system that CAN with-hold a cat 5 storm.
ok, i stand corrected, j. we do have the competence, imagination and capability - if it's properly directed. but is halliburton and its subsidiaries committed to such a benevolent direction? or are they more interested in creating something that's bound to be destroyed later - so they can make more money rebuilding it? like in a certain middle eastern country whose name has been in the news for the last three-four years or so?
Andi:
I am with you on the "no bid contract" concern. Halliburton seems to have a direct checking account with the federal government and I think that I hear their greedy squeeling coming from the gulf coast.
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