Hey all,
I thought of this thread and decided to bring it back on the anniversary of Katrina to touch on an update on things. This is not P.C. and is only my point of view as someone who spends alot of time driving around the gulf states.
In the last year, I have seen the goodness of this nation and its volunteers like Del be taken advantage of so badly, that I now refuse to help most people. I have seen cities around the nation welcome the N.O.LA. refugees, only to have their violent crime rates skyrocket, (look at Houston among others). I go through Miss., and, in areas, its been wiped clean by this storm. The folks there did not wait for the government to come "help them", they got off their butts, cleaned up their mess and started rebuilding. I am most impressed with these types of people. I am soooo sick of hearing that idiot Ray Nagin spout off that N.O. is the victim of racisim and that they would be further along if the city had a higher white population so the government would get it done more quickly. What a crock!! It is about "work ethic" and the fact that there are some in N.O. that got right to work cleaning their mess up, and assisting others do the same, but, that is the few that are doing this. Many are still raping, robbing and plundering the very cities that, out of the kindness of their hearts, invited these people to come there.These people were given 2 days to find a way out of N.O. and many did, many chose to stay and ended up looting the city, or dead. Most of the refugees want to go back to N.O., but say theres no jobs, well McDonalds and Burger King are paying $12.50 PLUS up to $5000.00 signing bonus if you stay for a year. Many stores are paying similar wages. They say they have no where to live, well where are all the people cleaning the area up living? Another point, most of the contractors would rather hire the people with a vested interest in the area, (locals), but there aren't many there, so they are bringing in laborers from across the nation to clean up someone elses belongings.
This has been a tragedy of a natural disaster, but the biggest tragedy, is that it is not the few that are abusing the system, it is the majority. I travel the gulf coast to fix my companies airplanes, as well as on family outings, and find it hard to stomach that the people who are complaining that nothing is being done fast enough, won't simply pick up a shovel, or broom and start helping themselves.
This being a religous area should remember the saying,.."The Lord Helps Those Who Help Themselves"
I'm through with this rant for now. I welcome comments, just not too inflaming as the thread Nazi's will shut us down again.
May God, (or whoever), bless us with a mild hurricane season,
Bill-CajunBoy of HETMARC
