CA and NOLA

PROLOGUE:
My hear truly goes out to those suffering as California burns.

My husband lived there, and agrees that it is one of the nicest pieces of real estate on Earth.

This essay was originally a response, and got trashed as unsympathetic.  It is not.  But a comparison needed to be made here folks.  Not all are rich and white, but one has to wonder if the response would be as quick in the slums or barrios of LA, as it is up in LaJolla, Del Mar, or San Diego.

This is about GWB’s administration, FEMA and the response.

My heart still bleeds for thousands in danger in California, but I still have to offer this food for thought.

Hard long day at work. I read an Essay about the horrifying fires in California set my mood when I got back. I cannot even comment there, for fear of sounding as embittered and jaded as I feel.  The writer extolled that Californians are better than anyone in the Nation & will rebuild immediately.  They have “Spirit” don’t you know. 

Don’t all Americans? I wondered.  Or just the seat of Republicanism in the Rich communities of the Del Mar? 

(Wiki Del Mar: 94.14% White, 0.25% African American, 0.34% Native American, 2.87% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 0.57% from other races, and 1.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.87% of the population.)

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I know in my heart, that 2 years later these people will not still be homeless, separated from their families.  They are Rich.  They are predominately White.

I wish no ill on anyone, and this IS heartbreaking.  I worry about the people there, I do. I care.

But I know the government will assist these people with the same fervor in which they abandoned the victims of Katrina.

Because in America these victims:

Never rate the government response these victims do:

No one will say the whites who stayed and tried to hold off the fires and save their homes and possessions were “Too Stupid” to leave; as they said about New Orleanians who stayed to board up their homes.  They will call them “brave”.

I hate when any of my people suffer.  I hate that any of my people go without relief when they do.

I just wish my country saw these groups BOTH as “MY People” as I do.“

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EPILOGUE:

We heard one guy on the radio today say, “We didn’t bother packing our clothes, cuz, you know, we can go shopping later.  My kids have been bugging me for a new wardrobe anyway.”

I read an article last month where a Katrina victim still could not go back 2 years later, and try and go through what is left in his house, hoping to find some clothes.