When America Fails To Take Care Of Our Own

Brad Pitt walks by a house in New Orleans. He's been there trying to help them rebuild. Even with this kind of attention, the Red Cross is running out of funds. FEMA trailers, contaminated with formaldehyde, blamed for creating further suffering of the survivors of Katrina, are to be removed but no one knows where all the people are supposed to go to.

Red Cross nearing the end of storm funds

05:06 PM CDT on Saturday, May 10, 2008

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS -- Red Cross officials in New Orleans say the agency is nearing the end of its storm-relief funds. It has given nearly $200 million to help the longterm recovery of victims of the 2005 hurricanes.


Kay Wilkins is head of the agency's southeast Louisiana chapter. She says that once the recovery money is gone, the Red Cross will resume its more traditional role providing short-term relief and educating in areas such as first aid and water safety.


The Red Cross still plans to keep several long-term case managers to help families with continuing needs.


Wilkins says money for some programs will begin running out this summer, she said, and will likely be exhausted by year's end.


There's $28 million left to help victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita with rebuilding and recovery needs like utility deposits, child care and appliances. Another $26 million will help pay for psychological testing and therapy for families with debilitating stress or other mental health problems.


There's another $10 million in grants that Red Cross plans to announce soon for large local institutions to help improve their mental-health resources.
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl051008mlredcross.e9e8dbbb.html

FEMA shutting down 5 trailer sites today
07:49 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Jill Hezeau / Eyewitness News Reporter

FEMA is scheduled to shut down five trailer sites in Orleans Parish, along with one in Jefferson Parish Wednesday – part of the agency’s continuing effort to have the sites closed by June 1, the start of hurricane season.

WWL-TV

Nearly 7,400 New Orleanians are still living in FEMA trailers.


Mayor Nagin said he would also like New Orleans residents to find alternate housing because of recent health studies concerning FEMA trailers.


Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control said Formaldehyde fumes in 519 trailers and mobile homes tested in Louisiana and Mississippi averaged five times the amount in most modern homes.


The studies also showed the high levels could lead to health problems and possibly cancer.


The following is a list of trailer sites closing Wednesday:


Apostolic Outreach Center, Orleans

Canal Street 1 & 2, Orleans

Cultural Arts Center Overflow Parking Lot, Orleans

Ideal Place Playground, Orleans

KW Esplanade Property, Orleans

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, Jefferson


FEMA is scheduled to close more sites next month, including five in Plaquemines Parish, two in St. John the Baptist Parish and one in St. Tammany, St. Bernard, Cameron and East Baton Rouge Parishes.


Anyone living in a FEMA provided travel trailer or mobile home and has not yet found permanent housing is asked to call FEMA at 1-888-294-2822.
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl043008jbtrailers.b46a13e3.html

We failed to take care of our own.

Senator John McCain said that if he had been president after Katrina, he would have gone to New Orleans. The problem is, he was a US Senator enjoying his birthday cake with President Bush instead of going there as it was. They were so ambivalent to all the suffering that having a birthday celebration for someone who had many already was more important than those who just lost everything including over a thousand who would never have a birthday again.

Tornados rip threw homes across this nation leaving behind tracks of death and tears and yet we don't see very many news reports on what comes with the tornadoes or what happens after as they try to rebuild and recover. We see more about foreign nations being reported than we do of our own people. While there is nothing wrong with being generous with these other nations, especially given the magnitude of the devastation left by cyclones and tsunamis, you'd think the media would be more incline to report on what is happening right here.

We don't take care of the sick, poor or needy right here. Poverty rises and food pantries run out of food to give to the hungry. Jobs are lost and unemployment runs out leaving people out of money and out of the unemployment count. There is no point in claiming weeks when there is nothing to gain. On this I speak from personal experience because I worked for a church that did not pay into the system. There were no unemployment checks for me. I stopped claiming weeks.

We don't take care of the healthcare needs of our own people. It's too much to ask that we find a way to do this so that no one is every turned away or financially ruined because they became ill. We just don't take care of any of them. Yet we say it's their own fault they lost everything.

We don't take care of the emergency responders who rushed into New York after the attacks and let them breathe in contaminated air and then told them they were on their own when they had to deal with the illnesses caused by their heroism.

We don't take care of the National Guardsmen or the Reservists we tell to give up their jobs and businesses to deploy overseas. We send them away from all they worked for and then tell them it's their fault for joining in the first place.

We don't take care of the wounded coming back from deployment into foreign lands. From nations during WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, we make them fight yet again to have their wounds treated and receive compensation to replace lost incomes. We allowed the government to lie about the magnitude of the suffering they are going through at the same time we complain other nations are not telling the truth on the suffering of their own people.

Today is Mother's day, but I don't feel much like celebrating because of all the people who are suffering across this nation. A lot of mothers across the nation don't feel like celebrating either when they see their children suffering. We know we failed to take care of our own.
We keep wondering why we didn't when this nation is supposed to be the land of plenty? Is it because we have become selfish? No, we've proven that when regular people step up to fill in for what the government is not doing. The question we should be asking is "how did we allow the government to be so callous, so detached from our own people?"

Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens
Features works and the private collection of the internationally known Czech-American sculptor displayed in his former home in Winter Park, Florida.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington