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Topic: What do we do NEXT????? (Read 232 times) |
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BarbaraD
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What do we do NEXT?????
« on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 8:36am » |
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Those of us in the south (LA and Texas are the places I'm most familiar with) have thousands of "refugees" in shelters, homes, and churches right now. What do we do next week? Next month?
Houston has 28,000 to 30,000 new people overnight and thousands of kids being placed in their school systems. Other parts of Texas and LA have the same problems. I haven't heard the figures on Shreveport this morning, but it was in the thousands yesterday.
Right now these people are set up in "dorms" in convention centers and church rec halls. How long can this last? Not long. So our next project is finding work for them, homes for them, etc. This will be a monumental task. Public sympathy is running high right now, but that won't last long either.
And it's a fact that we're going to get the bad along with the good people. That's going to bring up more problems for the towns hosting these refugees. Each city council is going to be facing problems that they've not had to face in the past. some of the industry from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is going to have to be relocated (they're already talking about this) until clean up and rebuilding can be accomplished there (maybe years).
So, what I'm getting at here is, we've been bashing everyone who could possibly be to blame for anything. Maybe it's time we stopping passing blame and started offering suggestions as to how to help. We could start with our city councils and work up from there.
As I said, we have an overwhelming task ahead of us (all of us), but my daddy always said, the best way to eat an elephant was take it one bite at a time.
Hugs BD
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Jill
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #1 on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 8:45am » |
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Barbara,
I asked those same questions... but have no answers. We also live in Texas and we have refugees coming into our little towns to stay at churches and shelters. They are already having meetings trying to figure out how this will work, long term and short term and are already concerned about people saying that they are from LA when they are not. Hard to believe but people do this...
I have to wonder, and I am sorry if this sounds bad, how many of these people are going to WANT to get jobs? And where are these jobs going to come from? We dont have that many around here... As far as school goes, that is great that they are welcoming children but how long can that last? There doesnt seem to be enough money for the extra supplies that teachers need.. But I could be wrong.
Anyways, it is scary to think about what is going to happen in the following weeks - from what I hear, the looting is spreading and people arent happy no matter how much help we are giving.  I think that we have found our country's weakness..
Does anyone know what to do next? A day at a time..
Jill
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BarbaraD
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #2 on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 9:55am » |
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Jill,
I think you said what I was trying to say -- how many of these people will WANT to work. My son brought this up last night. Wellllll, I'm gonna give 'em a chance. I've got work that needs doing and I'm going down to some of the shelters in Gladewater as well as Shreveport (got work in both areas) and see. I believe in helping those who want to help themselves.
As far as the schools go - well, that's a different matter. We've been educating illegal aliens for years (even furnishing translators for the little darlings so they don't have to learn English), so I'm for doing what's necessary for the kids - they can't help it. Maybe some of us can help out at the schools or something. Or maybe some of the refugee moms or dads are teachers and could help out. It's a thought. But this will take a little time to put in operation. We may be looking at alternate places for classrooms (it's just a multitude of problems isn't it?).
One other thing I'm going to suggest to our state authorities - Put the prisons to WORK - they can FARM (a little manual labor never hurt anyone). Grow some food for a change. Put them on some clean up crews. Let 'em earn their keep for a change. Cruel and inhumane? I think NOT!
Maybe the feds should look back on Roosevelt's (I think it was FDR) program to put American's to work (forget the initials for that one - my topamax is kicking in again).
But think about it -- we survived the Civil War... at least this time we're speaking to the Yanks and accepting help from them  The SOUTH will RISE again.....
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jcmquix
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #3 on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 10:10am » |
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We are hoping for the same thing.. we are going to try and get some of these people to Fla. and try and get them a place to live and eventually a job, so they can support themselves....
I think things will work out, but everyone needs to pull togeather....Quit the finger pointing and blaming, they can do that all later....
I just want to say Thank You, for Your part in the process as well as the many, many others...
God Bless
Charlie
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Jill
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #4 on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 10:17am » |
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Quote:| I think you said what I was trying to say -- how many of these people will WANT to work. My son brought this up last night. Wellllll, I'm gonna give 'em a chance. I've got work that needs doing and I'm going down to some of the shelters in Gladewater as well as Shreveport (got work in both areas) and see. I believe in helping those who want to help themselves. |
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I agree - they should be given a chance, especially because some do care about working and helping themselves... unfortunatly I dont think that enough of them do. Guess we wont know until we try and do more. I was very distraught last night when I heard that lady say that Texas wasnt doing enough to help....
I heard that they are asking teachers that have been misplaced to apply for jobs around here as they need them to teach all of these extra children. I thought that that was great and hope that they do that. I think that it is important to get these children back into school and back into some sort of routine, it will make this a little easier for them.
And Charlie, I think that what you all are doing is great and I wish the best fot you, just be careful and safe in your journey. wish that I could do more than that...
Quote:| But think about it -- we survived the Civil War... at least this time we're speaking to the Yanks and accepting help from them The SOUTH will RISE again..... |
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LOL - that is true! I love the truth behind this - the south will rise again!
Jill
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Lizzie2
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #5 on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 10:48am » |
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Philadelphia is accepting refugees into many places in and around the city - several of our schools have accepted students. Our hospital has put out the offer to accept patients, accept health care students and residents displaced by the disaster, and to have a sign up list for those who work here who would volunteer to help in relief areas.
So - other places are helping - in fact, I just watched a huge thing on this on either CNN or MSNBC yesterday - that people in one town (forget what state, but it's up the eastern seaboard) - has churches adopting other churches - also families adopting families and offering to allow them to stay in their house.
It's just a matter of getting people up here and realizing that other places have offered quite a lot of help. As I said in another post, my roommate from Philly is probably still on her way down to Louisiana as part of 9 people in 2 ambulances that will be transporting people to area hospitals. They left almost 10 hours ago now - but it's a long trip from here. On the news here, they showed a couple of local bottled water companies loading up their trucks and heading south.
So..........the relief and acceptance of refugees isn't just local to surrounding communities in the south - it's just that it takes a lot longer to get people to Philadelphia and other northern states than it does to get to Texas!
It'll come.....we just have to get people up here. 
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Sandy_C
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #6 on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 11:08am » |
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on Sep 3rd, 2005, 9:55am, BarbaraD wrote:
Or maybe some of the refugee moms or dads are teachers and could help out.
One other thing I'm going to suggest to our state authorities - Put the prisons to WORK - they can FARM (a little manual labor never hurt anyone). Grow some food for a change. Put them on some clean up crews. Let 'em earn their keep for a change. Cruel and inhumane? I think NOT!
The SOUTH will RISE again..... |
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It's a gret idea to ask the displaced Moms and Dads who are teachers to take on the massive influx of new children into what is probably an already overloaded school system. I hope they will and can be allowed to do this. If Texas, and any other state that is faced with this, is anything like North Carolina, it won't happen. NC has this lovely "law?" that says nobody can teach our precious children without passing an very stringent and hard test that covers just about everything and anything that has ever been taught in a school. Read in our papers about a VA teacher of 35 years relocated to NC because of her husband's job. She came with the highest recommendations, was teacher of the year in VA 7 times, taught high school science, was a role model to her students, and she was turned down flat until she took this "test". Mind you, she's a science teacher of 35 years. She aced science, biology, anatomy, chemistry, math, all of the science stuff, but didn't score high enough in the psychology of a 5 year old (kindergarten and early grade stuff), foreign languages, or know how to teach a PE class. They would not hire her, even though NC is woefully short of teachers.
Sorry, I'm ranting about the state of our public school system here. I sincerely hope it works out for all of the other states that are trying to help these desperate people. But, the displaced teachers of the Gulf states will not be accepted here.
As far as the prisoners - make em sweat!
Sandy
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Annette_Emond
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #7 on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 11:10am » |
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It occurred to me this morning that over the years here in the USA and also all over Canada, I have seen hundreds, maybe thousands, possibly millions of unused rail cars, sitting on remote sidings. Some of these cars have been in the same spot for years, never moving. It would seem to me that these could be well utilized to transport relief goods, and then set up as villages for people to live in. Certainly not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but infinitely better than being herded into a group of hundreds of thousands of other desperately lost folks.
Anybody out there workin' for the railroads?? Seems to me I've seen pics of someone with their big new engine?
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nani
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #8 on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 11:12am » |
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Schools will eventually get the federal funding for each new student that they take. The key word is "eventually". They will have to accomodate the influx of new students, figure out where to put them in already overcrowded classrooms, get a whole lot of pressure from the "No Child Left Behind" act that tests scores be better than the last time, and at some point...the district will get some money coming in.
The ones who will suffer most, are the children and their teachers. 
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Charlie
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #9 on: Sep 3rd, 2005, 4:11pm » |
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Quote:| Maybe the feds should look back on Roosevelt's (I think it was FDR) program to put American's to work (forget the initials for that one |
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You're probably talking about the NRA (National Recovery Adimistration) with the blue eagle. I have one on my bookshelf. They're neat. It was hated of course because it continued rights to 40 hour weeks and decent wages and other stuff. It was delclared unconstitutional after a time but it made FDR a four term President.
I hope we learn a bit from this horror. It has a lot to do with poverty and class...to be polite..... We are big enough to absorb some of this stuff too. These people don't need bootstrap speeches from politicians. They don't have any to pull yet. A little social compassion by Washington too is needed.
There will be years of rantings about this. I'm actually hopeful that some of the things I hear from churches and other organizations will do a lot in this area. If we can do this a few people at a time and not set some rigid timetable, things will begin to look better.
Charlie
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| « Last Edit: Sep 3rd, 2005, 4:13pm by Charlie » |
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deltadarlin
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #10 on: Sep 4th, 2005, 8:45am » |
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I have just one question. Why are people thinking that the refugees won't want to work?
'darlin
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #11 on: Sep 4th, 2005, 8:48am » |
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I watched a refugee interview this morning from Texas.
He had four things on his wish list:
1 food
2. water
3. Sleep
4. A job
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BarbaraD
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Re: What do we do NEXT?????
« Reply #12 on: Sep 4th, 2005, 9:13am » |
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There were editorials in the Shreveport papers this morning about HOW to create some jobs - they're working furiously on relocating some of New Orleans industry to Shreveport (there are several that can be temporarily located) and putting some "evacuees" back to work as soon as possible. I'm not sure what Texas is doing. Looks like they're a mite bit confusse right now, but something will be worked out.
No one said the refugees don't want to go back to work. It's just that a "few" are screaming and they're giving the "good" ones a black mark. The world is still revolving - it's just that the bottom part is at a standstill right now trying to get it's breath and figure out what to do.
Baton Rouge has doubled in size - Houston is full up - San Antonio is full, Dallas is full - small towns are doing the best they can, but schools (come Monday or sometime next week) are going to have to revise their whole school system to accomodate new arrivals (no school records, no shot records, think about it). It's going to be a strain for a while until money starts coming in (and yes there's that M word again). People's interest is going to wain and interest is going to diminish and then what?
This is going to be an ongoing project that's not going to be solved in a week or two. These people are going to have to be relocated for months - maybe years. We're already complaining about gas prices and gas rationing - how bad is that going to get before it gets better (if it does?)? Right now we don't even have all the people out of NO.
Right now, I'd say it's time for all concerned citizens to start on the local level and take an interest in what your city is doing and offer help where you can in the way of jobs or advice or help where you can. A little from a lot of people will go a long way for many.
My 2 cents... Hugs BD
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