Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Circular logic

Here is something I think the government wants to encourage.

I met Richard Moses in January at his house in Gentilly. He had worked his whole life as a ham-boner, whatever that is. When Katrina struck New Orleans he and his family left and went to Texas. He came back alone (a few times with his son, but mostly alone) and gutted his entire house alone and cleaned it with bleach alone. The attic, the walls, the floors. All of it. He was ready to go and get his life back together. He had plans to resize some of the rooms and add the proper amount of electrical switches and outlets. He even used the insurance money to finish paying off his house note. The house is his totally and completely, and it is currently totally and completely useless.

I drove by his house yesterday looking to give him some help in rebuilding. He had been hoping for a FEMA trailer in January, and he had been waiting outside his house for it when I met him. He said he was being kicked out of his hotel room in February. I haven't heard from him since. There is no FEMA trailer at his house yet. So I have been calling Mr. Moses in vain but who knows where he is staying. The kids working on the house across the street said they saw him on Monday. I didn't get to see him when I by. Who knows if he has electricity to charge his cell phone and check his messages? Who knows if he has a bed to rest on? Who knows anything about this except that it sucks? Why and how is this happening?

So where is the circular logic in all of this? Well, here's how I see it. This man is investing and has invested his entire life in this piece of property. It's not much, but it's his. The next time the national weather service tells him that he needs to evacuate, I bet it will be difficult for him to make that decision. He has invested his life, his time, his money in this piece of property. And if he can't get help from the government that he has paid into his whole life after they have promised to help, why would he leave next time? Because, quite frankly, who wants to go through this b.s. again?

The moral to this outrage is pretty simple: Where is Mr. Moses' FEMA trailer and why is this gentleman being forsaken? For that matter, where is everyone who wants to come back's FEMA trailer and why are they being forsaken?

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