"It's an emotional time. You re-live what happened and you remember how scattered everyone is now. There are relationships now that are completely over," said Robert Smallwood, a New Orleans writer. "The city has been dying this slow death. In New Orleans, you can't escape it. It's bad news everyday."

playa - have you ever seen the historic sign from a trolley car that reads,

"no dogs, no Negroes"?

I can't help thinking that if any other flooded American city were inhabited by only pets, the rescue and evacuation would require about six hours.

"meanwhile, back in the states..."

NEW YORK (AP) -- Leona Helmsley's dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley's grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire's estate.

Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.

Helmsley left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer's other children -- Craig and Meegan Panzirer -- for ''reasons that are known to them,'' she wrote.

I think the problem is we have too many people expecting government to come in and fix things. We have too many people thinking Bush is the devil and that the next government will make it all better. When the reality is that you have to learn to take care of yourself. The government is never going to do the job no matter who is in power. Across our government(Bush affiliated or not) the same people making legislation in the 60's and 70's are still in power today. They are still making decisions today. Tomorrow those closely associated with them will be makign the decisions. Americans will continue to vote democrat because that's what they are told to do. They will continue to vote Republican because that's what they are told to do. They will continue to vote for their party because that's what all rich people do. Or all minorities do. Or all poor people do. And the same people will be giving the same empty promises. IF you vote Democrat because you are black you are blowing it. IF you vote Republican because you are rich than you are blowing it. We will not see any improvements until we make these people earn our votes. The more independents the better in my view. Enough party loyalty.

Our job is to make sure the government provides the opportunities, not take care of everyone and they are deficient in this. So we need to take it back. Make them earn our votes.

Everyday we have government spending a billion dollars over whether we should keep people in the country or keep them out. Meanwhile at the school I used to coach the kids are still reading history books copyrighted in 1974. One day we will force them to make the changes in our public schools so that our children can see that living above the poverty line is an easy thing to do, not a difficult thing to do.

Again we need to move on from thinking the Bush administration is the devil and to blame for the ills of america. The poor in New ORleans were ther elong before Bush. As a matter of fact in the latest Census, poverty in america is actually down for the first time in 10 years. The problem with our poor and uneducated in america is a system wide problem, not a Bush issue. We need to make these people earn our votes. It's the only way they will make actual changes instead of empty promises.

Posted by misterearl:

"I explained to him that all societies have a disinfranchised portion of its population and thats just the cold hard reality of this planet. We can't take care of everybody."

Nalod - "we can't take care of everybody" sounds like the same paternalistic attitude that created and maintained slavery. "we" can't take of everybody? Who are the "we" exactly?

Last time I checked New Orleans was located in the United States. "we" can't take care of American citizens in an emergency?

For another example, what about simply "taking care" of something as fundamental as quality public education for children?

or is that asking too much?

[Edited by - misterearl on 08-29-2007 09:35 AM]

Mister,

Reread my statement before you make pompus statement that would insinuate that I think less of citizens in our country than others.

Why not think as citizens of the planet as all equal?

Who are we? Industrialized countries.

Lets raise the bar, a Fema trailer is better than what many suffereing people are getting in other parts of the world. Many have from katrina have relocated and began anew. In some parts of the world your left to starve to death, or your executed because of your religion or nationality if you relocate. In this country you can move from NO to Houstan with little problem.

Regarding education, quality education begins at home. Take a troubled kid froma troubled home and put them in the best schools and your gonna have problems. I think we ask our school system to do too much in this country. They are not supposed to raise the children or install values. Thats our jobs.

In some aspects the top studants in this country are pulled down by the resouces going to the struggling ones. Is that fair? Of course not, and its not fair the poor districts don't get any more help than they do. And nobody is universally happy with the solutions. LIke I said, can't do it all.

Its far from perfect, but its never going to be perfect.

If It's Broke Don't Fix It

>>I think the problem is we have too many people expecting government to come in and fix things.

yes bippity - something other than substandard levee system for the Gulf Coast would have been nice.



[Edited by - misterearl on 08-29-2007 10:59 AM]

Nalod - you think that is pompous?I ain't even started getting pompous, yet...

check it out

floodwaters surge into lower Manhattan, forcing The Garden to be employed as a shelter of last resort. Masss transit comes to an abrupt halt, while 19,595 angry New Yorkers, with no means of commuting home, are crammed into the world's most famous arena for three days with no food, running water or toilet facilities.


Pop Quiz

1. how long does it take the "government" to rescue them?

2. how long do you think it takes for the first fight to break out?

Posted by misterearl:

If It's Broke Don't Fix It

>>I think the problem is we have too many people expecting government to come in and fix things.

yes bippity - something other than substandard levee system for the Gulf Coast would have been nice.



[Edited by - misterearl on 08-29-2007 10:59 AM]

Again your knee jerk reaction to dispute my point just goes to prove my point. The levees were a problem for years. And yet noone fixed them. Not democrats, not republicans. Why because instead of forcing the government to perform to get votes. Forcing the government to actually make changes in order to get into office. Forcing the government to be credible to earn our votes. The same tired, untalented, unreliable do nothing type government is voted in again and again based on population demographics instead of their ability to get things done.

The end result is years of incompetent leadership that did not fix the levees and our most vulnerable people suffer because of it. IF we don't make these people earn our votes, when things happen we will again be left wondering why do they continue to fail us?

Support War Spending

• Only 2 percent of the federal government's hurricane-related funding went toward education recovery.

• The costs of hurricane destruction in K-12 and higher education were estimated at $6.2 billion, but only $1.2 billion in federal funding had been committed to restoring physical structures and property. Some rebuilding funds have come from the local and state levels and insurance, but several projects are unfinished.

• Displaced students re-enrolled in schools in 49 states, but a lack of adequate federal funding meant that schools with the greatest number of displaced students had insufficient classrooms, staff and supplies to support them. The report found that as many as 15,000 K-12 public school students and 35,000 college students in Louisiana and Mississippi missed school last year due to lingering problems associated with Katrina.

• Nearly one out of every six students in Louisiana's public colleges and universities dropped out for the 2005-06 school year. In the 2006-07 school year, more than 26,000 students from Louisiana public colleges and almost 9,000 Mississippi college students remained out of school.

Posted by misterearl:

bippity - floodwaters surge into lower Manhattan, forcing The Garden to be employed as a shelter of last resort. Masss transit comes to an abrupt halt, while 19,595 angry New Yorkers, with no means of commuting home, are crammed into the world's most famous arena for three days with no food, running water or toilet facilities.


Pop Quiz

1. how long does it take the "government" to rescue them?

Minutes...........And that is my point.

Posted by Bippity10:

the poor get nothing because the only power they have(The vote) is given away every election.

So tell me why ( poor illegal immigrants ) has the goverment to make their native language acceptable on everything from phone information service (where they say in spanish press 2), to alternative reading labels on products, instead of the english being the only language accepted in our country ?

According to you the poor don't have power