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Letters to the Editor
September 28, 2005
People Organizing Help Should Ask People Receiving Help To Help
Something’s wrong with this picture.
A few hundred people working to get food, clothes and other supplies to 15,000 who are sitting on cots watching.
I’m not blaming the people who have been displaced and lost everything they have. Words can’t tell how I feel for them.
The people who are supposed to be organizing this operation should ask the people who are receiving the supplies to help them.
They would feel better, both physically and mentally, if they had something to do other than sit around and think. It would help their self-worth knowing they are doing something for themselves and others who are unable to help themselves.
I know there are those who say this is a chance to turn their lives around and move on. You can’t move on by sitting around.
When you fall down, you get up and brush yourself off.
The people organizing the work need to give those people a chance. Some of them aren’t going to do anything. They weren’t doing anything before this happened, but the other people will feel better about themselves.
You all know time passes faster when you are busy.
Thelma Berryman
Galveston
Hurricane Rita early last week was projected to directly hit Galveston County. The storm later turned east, striking the Texas-Louisiana border, saving most of Galveston County.
Federal Government Not Responsible For Solving All Our Problems
As we watch the recent horror of the Gulf Coast unfold, the media continue to promote blaming the federal government for not doing something more quickly.
It is a symptom of how far our country’s mindset has deteriorated.
The federal government is not responsible for solving all of our problems. I know this sounds simplistic and cold, but sometimes the truth hurts.
I haven’t heard anyone question the leadership of the mayors and governors of the affected cities and states.
They knew that a Category 5 storm was headed straight for a densely populated area resting below sea level.
They knew that vital infrastructures were old and poorly maintained. Assistance from the National Guard and transportation out of the city should have been urgently requested before the storm.
That’s the beauty of a hurricane. You have a little time.
CNN captured the mayor of New Orleans wasting much of that time by posturing for the cameras.
Quit blaming Uncle Sam for failing to enter a city that was inaccessible. Ask why so many people were left there to meet their fate in the first place.
Rhonda Morrison
Galveston
List Of Donor Countries Has Grown Beyond 100
In regard to the letters to the editor (Daily News, Sept. 13): It is unbelievable that on Sept. 13 there can still be people so ignorant as to claim that there has been no assistance to the victims of the New Orleans disaster from other nations.
By now, the list of donor countries has grown beyond 100.
To use this situation to make ridiculous xenophobic attacks on countries like France goes beyond the ignorant and into the outright malevolent.
Let’s get this is context: Yes, it was a huge disaster, but without belittling this tragedy in any way, the death toll is about 1 percent of the tsunami of Christmas last year.
The tsunami struck some of the poorest countries of the world, while New Orleans lies in the world’s richest country.
President Bush initially, in an almost surly manner, rejected foreign assistance because America can take care of itself.
In spite of all this, the offers of real and useful help came flooding in right from the beginning, including (and especially) from countries like France.
For once, look beyond the political point scoring and acknowledge the very generous assistance offered by more than 100 nations.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has no problem doing so, but apparently there are still some outposts of civilization where, as late as Sept. 13, people still have not heard of the world’s generosity in light of this disaster.
Maurice Benfredj
Glenelg South, Australia
Those In Flood-plain Areas Should Know The Risks
My wife and I have owned waterfront property in San Leon since Hurricane Carla. We retired 13 years ago and moved to our little house that we had there.
I only paid $1,300 for the house and had to borrow money to do it.
At retirement, we added to the house and made it our retirement home. At that time, we took out flood and windstorm insurance for our home.
Before that, we paid for every bit of damage that was done to our house, as thousands of other homeowners have had to do for theirs.
What difference should it make if there are 5,000 or 500,000 people who have sustained major losses?
Where was the government to help us then? However, most of us didn’t expect any help from the government because we knew that we were in a flood-plain area and had to suffer the consequences for not having adequate insurance, just as the people in New Orleans should have known.
To us, however, it was a catastrophic loss. What about the people in Florida who have been through so much?
Mig Howard
San Leon
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