Good Reads Library
Give to Katrina Victims. But Don't Forget the People In Your Backyard--They're There Even If You Wish They Weren't
There was a piece on NPR about mobile homes being built to house victims of Katrina. Local residents of the town where the plant is located are busy gathering everything needed to furnish the homes.
This was all very nice, until I heard one lady talking about how she wanted to put the stuff right there for someone, complete with a little note, and how she didn't want to "just give stuff and have it sit on the shelf of some food pantry for years"
Which brings me to an column in Monday's Washington Post about DC Village, a local homeless shelter:
The shelter is home to about 68 families, including about 100 children. The air is rife with junkyard dust and stench from the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Facility. The ground is contaminated -- a "brownfield," as environmentalists call it -- toxic, but supposedly not serious enough to be considered a hazard. At least not as far as the health of these homeless families is concerned.
....To better understand the treatment of residents at D.C. Village, consider the reception given to those who were rescued from the floodwaters in New Orleans last week and brought to live in the D.C. Armory on Capitol Hill. They were greeted with balloons, handshakes and applause from city officials; given medical attention, including mental health counseling; and assigned a cadre of emergency workers to help them get back on their feet. They receive three meals a day, access to computers, help getting children into schools, help filling out applications for public assistance and help writing résumés.........
The needy are in ALL of our communities, every day, but most of us choose not to see them. And a lot of people ascribe to the "fine, but Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) attitude".
he lady with the food pantry comment doesn't seem to know that most food pantries need food ALL the time. People are really generous during the holiday seasons, but the rest of the year they are too often forgotten.
Do we have to see people suffering live on CNN to CARE about them?
What is being done for the Katrina victims is wonderful beyond words. But if Americans can take some of the heartfelt, generous feelings that have brought them to reach out and help the victims of Katrina, and channel them towards the needs of people in their own communities, we could make a huge difference.
Bush's speech talked about prejeudice and poverty, about the toll they have taken in New Orleans, and elsewhere. We need to make sure he and the rest of the bureaucrats put their money where their mouths are. Not just in New Orleans, but in every city and town!
Then we could see something good coming out of Katrina. We could see it as something terrible that brought about something wonderful............
