The storm after the hurricane

Cops Set To Forcibly Clear Out New Orleans: from the article - "They were all insisting that I had to leave my home," said Shelia Dalferes, who said she had 15 minutes to pack before she and her husband were evacuated. "The implication was there with their plastic handcuffs on their belt. Who wants to go out like that?"

Let me get this straight. These people are all but ignored by their government for almost a week. They can't afford to leave town so they stay behind to protect their homes and the few possessions that they own. They suffer through the absolute worst of the actual storm... they go days possibly without food & water... they have no idea when/if help is coming.... and now, after all they've gone through simply to survive, they will be forced out of their home? These people have lived through a week of pure hell and then someone knocks on the door and tells them they have 15 minutes to pack up and get out. This is just fucked up on so many levels.

What's wrong with this picture? Yes the waters slowly leaving the city are toxic and there is a massive clean up to be done. Are the 5,000-10,000 remaining people in a city of once nearly a million going to be in the way? Is it an inconvenience to work around them? Wouldn't time be better spent actually doing something like getting food, water and medical supplies to these folks make more sense than sending armed, well fed, clean, healthy military to their front doors and intimidating them into leaving?

Here's a novel idea why not help these folks get back on their feet enough to HIRE them - yes pay THEM...the victims with nothing left...to assist in the clean up in some capacity. Apparently those without were the majority of the ones who stayed behind. Give them the opportunity to make some money...restore their own city...repair their own homes. If they are physically and mentally capable to do this then by all means the opportunity should be offered to them. And I guarantee you they'd work for a lot less money than the "government contracted" crews that will start rolling in.

During the days that immediately followed the storm the world was privy to footage of thousands of people helping each other. Footage I'll add that was compliments of a media who found a way into the city when our own government couldn't. On the news we saw many amazingly strong & capable victims even though food, water and help was no where to be seen. The sheer determination of these people to survive kept them going. Yes, they paused in front of a camera to plead for the government to step in and do something...anything...for them but the strongest footage seen was that showing people helping each other. So why not offer the ones strong enough and willing the opportunity to come back to New Orleans and pay them to rebuild their own city and homes? Many were the working poor before the storm. Now they are unemployed in their "new cities" where, contrary to Fox News Polls, there isn't a surplus of jobs to choose from. If someone is willing to stay behind or someone is willing to return and work then who better to employ. Doesn't their Government owe them that much?

It is estimated that some 400,000 jobs were lost as a result of hurricane Katrina. The government has suggested hiring 40,000 of those affected to assist in the clean up. Even to my untrained eye it's pretty obvious that it's going to take a whole lot more than 40,000 laborers to do the work. So, I have to wonder who'll pick up the slack. I'll be watching to see who FEMA hires and George W. Bush appoints to oversee this clean-up and rebuilding. I guarantee you the ones who'll profit (and profit they will) will have ties & connections to the powers that be.

Soon we'll have the answer to this analogy: If Enron = Iraq then _______ = New Orleans.
Wait and see.