The Hypocrisy of Hurricane Katrina
Allan J. Ashinoff
September 08, 2005
In the last week Phoenix has received some 500 to 1000 evacuee’s from Louisiana and has promised to house even more if needed. The Veterans Memorial Coliseum is being used to shelter those who were in harms way from Katrina. A monumental outpouring of food, clothing, and shelter were voluntarily gathered and distributed to the survivors. Life is rough living in an arena but at least its dry, air conditioned, and food is plentiful. Survivors children are being enrolled in local schools and adults are exploring Phoenix and seeing what job opportunities are available.
The out pouring of concern and physical items for the folks from Katrina is a heart warming demonstration of the best of human kind. But where was that “heart” two weeks ago? While thousands of people have fled the gulf region and received charity from cities such as Phoenix and Huston there are those in those cities who for years have looked for a helping hand and never received it. What make the less fortunate from the Hurricane more deserving of the charity than those here in our home towns that for whatever reason can’t make due?
Daily for the last decade or so I have seen those standing on the street corners with signs saying ‘work for food’. I’ve witnessed people sleeping beneath highway overpasses. I’ve seen those outside Circle K’s hoping for spare change from a stranger. Why have these people not been afforded the same courtesy as Americans as the folks from Hurricane Katrina?
Homelessness is not always something someone chooses to engage in. Poverty, mental illness, and a host of other causes result in homelessness. To suggest that the poor or destitute from Louisiana are more entitled to a “hand-up” than the poor and destitute in Phoenix, or Huston, or NY City is absurd. For Katrina victims to receive medical treatment, a two thousand dollar government issued credit card, brand new clothing, a bed, restroom facilities, and satisfying food is a slap in the face to the homeless in Phoenix who bake daily in the summer sun, go to sleep hungry, and stink from fifty paces. Why aren’t state governments on non-event nights setting up cots in their coliseums? Or renovating abandoned warehouses to house the homeless?
One would suggest that Bush isn’t doing enough to decrease poverty. I content that statement is far beyond absurd and borderlines on being asinine. Poverty is not a federal issue. Poverty is a local issue and a community issue. Poverty has more to do with local economy than government handouts. Citizens see the homeless everyday outside their stores, on the street corners, and pushing their shopping carts. The federal government doesn’t witness these unfortunate people in our streets. The federal government has no obligation to support any American, or to pay their way through life, or to ensure their belly is full, or ensure they have education enough to warrant a high paying job. Those aspects of society are left up to the individual. Any degree of hand up is at the discretion of the local community.
To micro-mange the homeless population in America we do not need cataclysmic events to grab our heart strings and make us empathize. There are Churches on every other block here in Phoenix. Churches should be doing far more for the American people. Churches send people into nations like Mexico, Iraq, India, and China and just about anywhere else globally to help the poor. Yet at night the pews in local churches remain empty while people sleep in alleys. The cafeterias in Church Activity buildings sit empty nightly instead of feeding the poor or placing out cots for a safe nights rest. Once I asked a church office manager why they do not open their sanctuaries up and feed people in their cafeteria. I was told that it was a question of liability. If someone were to get hurt the church would be liable. If people slept in the church, things would get broken or stolen. I’m sure Christ was concerned with liable when he spit in the clay and rubbed it in the blind mans eyes to restore his sight.
If Churches of all denomination and type opened their doors to the homeless, the problem would be solved in months. If those providing food and water to illegals crossing in the desert gave that food and water to American homeless people those Americans wouldn’t know hunger for that day. If those concerned with the ethical treatment of animals would care more about people perhaps there would be more owners for the pets they obsess over. If the local government concentrated on restoring abandon factories and providing hundreds of beds, free bussing, and a mailing address perhaps the number of homeless would drop as sales tax revenues would go up. If the local government of our Republic would stop making excuses and meet their responsibility to their citizenry then the federal government wouldn’t have to fund these “projects” across the nation. The federal government has too much control in state affairs and this need be stripped away. It’s not what our forefathers put to paper.
Homelessness in America is everyone’s responsibility. Surly each of us can do something to make one indigent life a little easier. If we focus our local governments’ attention on the people in our streets the issue it will get better. If we focus our communities Churches on homelessness it will erase homelessness in short order and ease the burden on our local governments.
It shouldn’t take a Katrina to make us help people in need. As Americans it’s not our obligation to help those less fortunate it’s our choice. State and Federal government rob from us with taxes to fund these projects but the issue never seems to lessen. As Katrina has shown us all, when we want to we can accomplish great things like move one million people from a flood and provide them with shelter, food, some cash, and medical treatment. Why we choose not to help those we see daily, whose tragedy was life and not nature is anyone’s mystery. After Katrina has long become a memory and the evacuees have all found homes there will still be homeless on our streets that need a hand up. Homeless that watched as food, shelter, clothing, and the medical care they needed for sometime bypassed them to the Katrina victims. The question is how much TV do we have to endure before we feel enough sympathy to break open our wallets, donate our time, or layout a cot for our American brothers?
The out pouring of concern and physical items for the folks from Katrina is a heart warming demonstration of the best of human kind. But where was that “heart” two weeks ago? While thousands of people have fled the gulf region and received charity from cities such as Phoenix and Huston there are those in those cities who for years have looked for a helping hand and never received it. What make the less fortunate from the Hurricane more deserving of the charity than those here in our home towns that for whatever reason can’t make due?
Daily for the last decade or so I have seen those standing on the street corners with signs saying ‘work for food’. I’ve witnessed people sleeping beneath highway overpasses. I’ve seen those outside Circle K’s hoping for spare change from a stranger. Why have these people not been afforded the same courtesy as Americans as the folks from Hurricane Katrina?
Homelessness is not always something someone chooses to engage in. Poverty, mental illness, and a host of other causes result in homelessness. To suggest that the poor or destitute from Louisiana are more entitled to a “hand-up” than the poor and destitute in Phoenix, or Huston, or NY City is absurd. For Katrina victims to receive medical treatment, a two thousand dollar government issued credit card, brand new clothing, a bed, restroom facilities, and satisfying food is a slap in the face to the homeless in Phoenix who bake daily in the summer sun, go to sleep hungry, and stink from fifty paces. Why aren’t state governments on non-event nights setting up cots in their coliseums? Or renovating abandoned warehouses to house the homeless?
One would suggest that Bush isn’t doing enough to decrease poverty. I content that statement is far beyond absurd and borderlines on being asinine. Poverty is not a federal issue. Poverty is a local issue and a community issue. Poverty has more to do with local economy than government handouts. Citizens see the homeless everyday outside their stores, on the street corners, and pushing their shopping carts. The federal government doesn’t witness these unfortunate people in our streets. The federal government has no obligation to support any American, or to pay their way through life, or to ensure their belly is full, or ensure they have education enough to warrant a high paying job. Those aspects of society are left up to the individual. Any degree of hand up is at the discretion of the local community.
To micro-mange the homeless population in America we do not need cataclysmic events to grab our heart strings and make us empathize. There are Churches on every other block here in Phoenix. Churches should be doing far more for the American people. Churches send people into nations like Mexico, Iraq, India, and China and just about anywhere else globally to help the poor. Yet at night the pews in local churches remain empty while people sleep in alleys. The cafeterias in Church Activity buildings sit empty nightly instead of feeding the poor or placing out cots for a safe nights rest. Once I asked a church office manager why they do not open their sanctuaries up and feed people in their cafeteria. I was told that it was a question of liability. If someone were to get hurt the church would be liable. If people slept in the church, things would get broken or stolen. I’m sure Christ was concerned with liable when he spit in the clay and rubbed it in the blind mans eyes to restore his sight.
If Churches of all denomination and type opened their doors to the homeless, the problem would be solved in months. If those providing food and water to illegals crossing in the desert gave that food and water to American homeless people those Americans wouldn’t know hunger for that day. If those concerned with the ethical treatment of animals would care more about people perhaps there would be more owners for the pets they obsess over. If the local government concentrated on restoring abandon factories and providing hundreds of beds, free bussing, and a mailing address perhaps the number of homeless would drop as sales tax revenues would go up. If the local government of our Republic would stop making excuses and meet their responsibility to their citizenry then the federal government wouldn’t have to fund these “projects” across the nation. The federal government has too much control in state affairs and this need be stripped away. It’s not what our forefathers put to paper.
Homelessness in America is everyone’s responsibility. Surly each of us can do something to make one indigent life a little easier. If we focus our local governments’ attention on the people in our streets the issue it will get better. If we focus our communities Churches on homelessness it will erase homelessness in short order and ease the burden on our local governments.
It shouldn’t take a Katrina to make us help people in need. As Americans it’s not our obligation to help those less fortunate it’s our choice. State and Federal government rob from us with taxes to fund these projects but the issue never seems to lessen. As Katrina has shown us all, when we want to we can accomplish great things like move one million people from a flood and provide them with shelter, food, some cash, and medical treatment. Why we choose not to help those we see daily, whose tragedy was life and not nature is anyone’s mystery. After Katrina has long become a memory and the evacuees have all found homes there will still be homeless on our streets that need a hand up. Homeless that watched as food, shelter, clothing, and the medical care they needed for sometime bypassed them to the Katrina victims. The question is how much TV do we have to endure before we feel enough sympathy to break open our wallets, donate our time, or layout a cot for our American brothers?
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