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Before everyone goes jumping all over me, let me say that I am in the military and went to New Orleans after the storm to help out and have donated a good deal of money to the red cross. That said...
I don't know why everyone is freaking out about these people on the Gulf Coast. The bottom line is, they should have had flood and homeowners/renters insurance. I don't know why people EXPECT the government to bail them out when they fail to prepare for something like this. Many people have said that people could not afford insurance. If this is true, then their possessions did not amount to much and if they did, then they should have bought a little less or a little more conservatively and saved some of their money for insurance. Even if they did not have insurance, if, a year later, you are still living in a FEMA trailer and have no income, this is because you have not put in the effort to make your own life better. It is not the governments job to support you for the rest of your life just because a storm came your way.
I met a lady where I live that lived in a low-income area of New Orleans a few months after the storm. She had moved here (a couple hundred miles away) gotten a job, rented an apartment, and put her children in school. All three of them were working to make their lives better
--------Admin: Deleted--------
Suvival of the Fittest
Date: Mon, 2006-09-11 03:48
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to LaLa05
Have you tried talking to the administration about your idea? I'm sure they'd love to get your idea started at school...get together a group of interested students, maybe even start a Tutoring Club..make the system smoother and more efficient by enlisting help from a favorite teacher or administrator.
Good Luck!
Re: Suvival of the Fittest
Sorry, my last reply was a little off in grammar. Anyway, my idea was to set this up at school. There are many kids i know that are failing because they don't set up a time or find time to do their work. I'm volunteering when I can without wrecking vacations or missing school, so that's helping, but I want to do something for kids during school. I've tried tutoring, but each time I try to get hold of them they never reply back.
Re: Suvival of the Fittest
LaLa05, thank you for the compliment. I would like to point out that there are a lot of amazing people that lived in the disaster area at the time of the disaster and they are still there and doing some great work for themselves and their communities. So, not everyone that stayed behind is looking for a handout.
As far as your idea, I'm not sure if you mean to help Katrina kids or everyone in general. In large part, the schools are doing well in the area. As far as motivating kids, I would say it would be hard unless you actually went to the area, which I assume is not feasible for you. At this point, a year later, I would say you could do just as much good in your own area - there are plenty of people around you that could use your help just as much as the Katrina people. You could probably even do more overall good because your are actually there and can physically help!
Re: Suvival of the Fittest
GoWhiteSox!!! I'd like to say THAT'S AMAZING for what you've done!!! I do agree with you. The government is there to assisstance when disasters hit, but they can only do so much before completely overboard and putting America farther into debt. They need to stand on their own 2 feet! They will, I can't say always, but they have aid, but to really get where you want to be you need to help yourself. The people of katrina have either gone somewhere else, or else they've stayed waiting for the government to provide them with everything that insurance didn't cover. One of my ideas is to help kids that have in the past failed and expect to just barely pass out of school. I want to set up a group, somewhat of a study group, but teachers that would volunteer to help kids catch up, but we need to motivate them. Do you have any ideas how we can motivate kids to start working now? It's better than later!!!
Re: Suvival of the Fittest
Go White Sox,
We appologize for the undescriptive edit,
the content violated personal info/offensive langauge/ or one of our other Message board 'don'ts'. Edits should always have a description with them.
Re: Suvival of the Fittest
What's with the Admin-Deleted? How about at least giving us a reason for violating our right to free speech? I honestly don't remember what I put there, but I have never used vulgar words or anything like that on these boards, so I don't know why I would have gotten censored.
Let me first start by saying that I do believe I would be less likely to be jumped all over because I worked in NO after the hurricane and donated money to the Red Cross. This shows that I am compassionate towards these people and I am willing to put my money where my mouth is in support of my view on this issue. My view on this issue is that if anyone expects to be financially compensated in any way for a disaster, they need to have insurance. Do not expect the government to pay for your failure to prepare.
I don't think you can compare disaster relief with the Police/911 service. The Police are an expected service that is provided across the country. If you took a poll of all Americans, virtually all would say they expect the police to come if they call 911. This is because it is law in all areas that police services be provided and law in most areas that 911 service be provided. It is a simple issue. If, however, you asked all Americans what they would expect from the government if a disaster occurred to them, you would get vastly varying answers. This is because there are no laws that determine what relief will be given to disaster survivors. It is normally left up to the elected officials (President, Governors, Mayors) and relief organizations (FEMA, State relief agencies). I can only speak for myself here and I would say that I am a homeowner who has homeowner's and flood insurance, and I would EXPECT nothing from the government in compensation to me. I have prepared myself for a disaster because I know the government is not required by law to compensate me in the event of a disaster. Therefore, I do not EXPECT it.
In the NO situation, I do EXPECT the government to do things such as fix the levees, provide police/fire/ambulance service, etc. I just do not EXPECT them to provide anyone with money or a trailer, or anything like that.
You may notice that I keep uppercasing the word EXPECT. This is because karlchwe obviously didn't read my post well. You post is hardly coherent, but I get the idea you read that I had a problem with the government providing assistance to the people of NO and surrounding area. I did not. I only said I don't know why people EXPECT the government to provide them with assistance, because this is not anything that is guaranteed in the constitution or anywhere else I can find.
Finally, I would like to say that yes, I do have examples of people "waiting for the government to help them". When I was in NO, I saw ample examples of people that were in relatively great shape (little damage to house, no possessions lost, etc.) just sitting around acting like their house had been obliterated and they lost everything. The fact is, when people come to EXPECT this type of thing from the government, it leads to people failing to themselves prepare. People must take responsibility for their own well-being and not EXPECT the government to do it for them.
Re: Suvival of the Fittest
A few points:
- I haven't heard of anybody -------Admin: Deleted---------- waiting for the government to help them. Do you have any examples?
- And yet you expect the police to come when you call 911, I bet. If you have enough health and property insurance, you should be okay if somebody robs you, right?
- And I don't see how health or property insurance compensates for the loss of loved ones, or neighbors, or jobs.
- "Survival of the fittest" is a kind of slogan or catchphrase, kinda like "Finder's keepers" or "bro's before ho's." It is a way to give a thin shine of legitimacy to some viewpoint without actually making some kind of argument for that viewpoint.
- And I don't see why you think being an armed forces guy who helped out at NO should make people any less likely to jump all over you, as you say. Even smart people can say stupid things, and even generous people can say selfish, ignorant things. Don't you think boneheads deserve what they get? Survival of the fittest, right?