KATRINA VICS..Do we owe them?

Question

I wasn't going to post this, but I've been totally wiped out down to my underwear 4 times in my life and I recieved NO outside help to get back on MY feet. I did that ALONE!

In June, FEMA and Austin Tx, along with the Texas DWS setup a job fair/training for all the Katrina evacuees in the Austin area to be held at the ACC campus in East Austin.
Several of the evacuees said they had no transportation to get from the apartment complexes. So the city of Austin set up transportation for each of them to ensure they would be able to partake of job searching.The transportation consisted of nine buses and vans, to shuttle back and forth to the campus to ensure that the hundreds of people looking for jobs could be transported. The vehicles were brought right to their residences and every effort was made. Nine vans and buses transported a total of one person. Not one person per bus,one person total. At the end of the day, none of the Katrina Evacuees applied for any of the jobs.

Not one person took employment - None. The bill to FEMA was $7,800. And yet they still get on TV claiming that the United States Government "Owes Them". So the Gov and FEMA is FUNDED by working tax payers..SO... Do we, HARD WORKING tax payers OWE them a continous "free ride" or should we jerk the nipple out of their mouths?

well pagan earthgirl I realize this, You need look no farther than the general view of witches to know all the rest of the world sees in an image of the wicked witch of the west..most are so ignorant they think witchcraft is satanic..duh..That's impossible and totally untrue.. Like anything else all people see is what the media shows them and that is "the moochers"... I am SO over qualified for assistance its not even funny..I'm horrifically crippled and have some other problems. I've been qualified for decades.. but I claw my way through and I make it!.. Not only do I make it but MUCH better than I would on public assistance by a long shot... its not a learned behaviour unless you concider lazyness a learned behaviour..Sorry but I have little sympathy for listless lazy people.....put'em to sleep!

someone said. "you have to have seen it to understand..."...umm in middle Tn there is a 1974 lincoln towncar in a tree..up the tree...it's still there.. a twister dropped there...about 4.7 miles from my home..it was mine...yes I've seen jaw droppin devistation.. the house was gone..barn gone..well there was a baren patch where everything was...oddly it left teh chicken coop..

Answer 1

Well, here's what I think:

I think it's great to help people out. Now they've gotten checks to help them on their way, they've gotten places to live temporarily, and they've gotten an opportunity to apply to jobs (the people in this one area, anyway). Eventually we have to cut them loose. We shouldn't set up any more job fairs, we shouldn't give them any more cash, and we have to set a clear deadline to get them out of the temporary houses. Then we have to stick to our guns and send them on their ways. If they don't take the help when it's offered it's no ones fault but their own.

Answer 2

I agree with the above two answers completely. It's hard for anyone who hasn't really been in New Orleans pre and post Katrina to understand this whole mess. Some of the people of the big city and other ruined places along the coast aren't the sort of individuals who really want to work. They feel devastated and lost, and since they were already poor and have suffered a lot (some may have lost their homes, everything they knew, their jobs, and even family members), they still want help.

This is not as a big deal as people are making it. We should have helped them out originally. They deserve our help. Yes, there are people who do not want the certain kind of aid that requires them actually working, but that's life. There are people like that everywhere, opportunists and "lazy" folk. The media is making a big deal about it because OMG THEY'RE STEALING OUR $$$$!!!!

There are many bigger problems to talk about than Katrina victims stealing money, or being lazy bums. How about rebuilding New Orleans, a city America prided itself in until a hurricane blew it over and our government failed to protect or preserve it? How about reconstructing the coastline, so as to save it from the upcoming hurricane season? Or how about addressing the poverty and racism problems still alive and around in our modern day time in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi?

Answer 3

Why is the question "do we owe them?" The questions should be "how can we help them back on their feet?"

The victims needed and for the most part still need:
1) housing
2) jobs
3) people to help clean up

Instead we are talking about throwing money at the problem.

-The government failed at implementing their own plans for housing. Then they went and said housing was a unforseen and uncontrollable problem as if they had never thought on the subject.
-Jobs and tax revenue would come back quickly if people have a place to stay.
-Most of Katrina's damage area isn't cleaned up yet today.

Those three are what is needed. Money isn't the answer.

Answer 4

You need to understand that these are people who did not have jobs here in New Orleans to begin with. They lived on welfare, in public housing. Some of them may have never held a job in their lives. They are completely dependent upon the system to support them in every way. They do not want jobs. They want the handout. It's all they know. You should see them here, marching in droves on the flooded out public housing units, demanding that the government let them go back in to live there. It is disgusting. What you are not seeing is that thousands of us here in New Orleans have returned, found places to live, have jobs, and do not have our hands out for freebies. There are so many jobs available here, I see signs all the time and the job listings in the papers are extensive. There have been job fairs here. A person has to be willing to work and willing to take responsibility for their own lives. The people you are speaking of are not. I'm sorry that is the only face of New Orleans you are seeing.

Answer 5

I wondered when someone would ask this & KUDOS to you for doing so!!!

How much longer are those people going to milk the systems for handouts? Isn't it time to get on your own 2 feet & do for yourself?!

Earlier I answered a question about a bartender with experience needing a job in Vegas. The way it was worded was he/she expected the job to be handed to him/her for being a victim of the hurricane.

Answer 6

Yes! Not babying them but uplifting them. Afford them opportunities and set/enforce deadlines on public assistance(just like welfare to work). There will be no free ride!!! Peace.

Answer 7

I felt that right after Katrina, we as a country owed them our prayers, thoughts and monetary gifts (if we had it.) But now I believe that enough time has passed and they should be busting their a--es to start over.

Answer 8

We did our part to help them but if they aren't gonna take a chance to get themselves on their feet than we don't owe them anymore than we already gave them.

Answer 9

Well I think we owe them a lil....We owe them a way to get a job, maybe a little money.....By now they should be able to make money for themselves....We did owe, but we paid that debt.......Now its their turn.