Are they really entitled to this?
I have a friend that has moved back to Houston from somewhere in Nebraska. Right now she is living in a place called the Intown Suites. It is a motel of sorts that has small rooms with a little kitchen and it offers weekly and monthly rates. She has MS and is in a wheel chair right now. She is living off of Social Security and hanging in there. BUT there are many of the hurricane Katrina and Rita evacuees living at this small motel. I will go over to visit my friend and see them milling around the complex. "We the People" (the government) are still paying their way. This morning I received this email and thought it was a sad explanation of what many of these people do. (Now I know that there are some who have found jobs and are going on with their lives, but this is an example of what is wrong with people who believe in entitlements.
Here is the email:
This past weekend FEMA and the City of Austin, along with the Texas Workforce Commission setup a job training/hiring/interview/job fair for all the Katrina FEMA evacuees in the Austin area to be held at the ACC campus on Webberville Road in East Austin. Several of the evacuees said they had no transportation to get from the apartment complexes.
So the city of Austin/FEMA/TWC set up transportation for each of them to ensure they would be able to partake of the benefit of job searching. The transportation consisted of nine buses and vans, to run from four locations in Round Rock, and five locations in Austin, in continuing shuttles back and forth to the campus to ensure that the hundreds of people looking for jobs would be transported in comfort. The vehicles were brought to their residences; drivers knocked on the doors; and every effort was made.
At the end of the day, the nine vans and buses transported a total of one Person.
Not one person per bus - one person total.
At the end of the day, none of the Katrina Evacuees applied for any of The jobs. Not one person took employment - NONE total.
The bill to FEMA was $7800.
You know, I don't mind helping the sick and the elderly, but those that refuse to work don't "deserve" my dime. Do you think we owe these people? I’m open for discussion here.
posted by Lucy Stern @ 6:59 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
Wow, if those figures are correct, something is dreadfully wrong. I need time to think on this one, kinda in shock.
Here I put in hours a day searching and submit apps to get no reply in the search to find a job.
Honestly, I would leave these things to the Lord Almighty to deal with people like this instead of putting judgement on them.
It depends upon whether they are refusing to work because they are lazy, or because they have some type of disability, albeit, mental, or physical. It is hard to judge people without knowing all the facts myself.
michelle - It was hard for me to believe too.
daybyday4-2day - It is ashamed that only one person showed up to the job fair when the city probably put a lot of time putting it together. What a waste.
friday's child - God will be the ultimate judge of these people.
Barbara - Many of the ones I have seen are just lazy. I know that there are those that have disabilities, mental and physical and for those people I am willing to help. I know that I am not supposed to judge them, but when a job fair is held and only one person shows up it makes you a little mad. Buses were sent to help them get to the fair and they still didn't go. The government keeps extending the time that they will pay rents for the hurricane victims and they are taking full advantage of it.
I have to say that I met a man last night that was from New Orleans and he has come here and worked his buns off making a living for his family. I am very proud of him for his work ethic. He said that nothing was going to keep him down and he's proving it. The Lord has blessed him.
Yesterday my husband made keys for a lady from New Orleans who wanted two receipts for the work so that she could submit them to two different agencies for payment. She is one of those that knows how to "use" the system.
Lucy, I understand the point you are making. There are plenty of those type of individuals out there. I also agree with your stance that if they aren't helping themselves why should we bother.
However this email is not factual. I don't mean to be a stickler, but false statements aren't good evidence. Here is what the URBAN LEGENDS website has to say:
Comments: Once again, the victims of Hurricane Katrina are under attack by malicious rumormongers. While there is a grain of truth to the above story, the facts are misrepresented and the conclusion drawn is false.
Here are the facts, according to reportage by the Austin American-Statesman:
TRUE: A job fair for Katrina evacuees was held in Austin, Texas on February 18, 2006.
TRUE: Twelve shuttle buses were arranged for evacuees who lived outside the metropolitan area.
TRUE: Only one person rode any of the buses to the job fair.
TRUE: The bill for the shuttle buses totalled just over $7,000.
FALSE: Ridership was so low because Katrina evacuees are more interested in receiving handouts than getting a job.
FALSE: Not one person applied for employment at the job fair.
The job fair was actually quite well attended, reports the American-Statesman, noting that "more than 200 people showed on a rainy, 30-degree day, many commenting on how helpful the resource agencies were."
The real reason no one took advantage of the free transportation, city officials say, was inadequate publicity. Due to a bureaucratic SNAFU involving miscommunications between FEMA and the city of Austin, confirmation that the federal agency would reimburse the cost of the shuttles came at the eleventh hour, so arrangements weren't finalized until the day before the event was to take place. Most of the people who could have used the transportation weren't even aware it was available.
I was aghast at the outcome of that email. One person? That is horrible.
I can't believe how lazy some people can be.
Just today, I was driving down a busy street and there was a man holding up a sign that said "Jobless and Hungry". Within less than a block there was a K-Mart with a huge sign that said "Now Hiring". I could not believe the irony. This man did not look dirty and he certainly could have walked in an applied for the job with what he was wearing.
Oh Great One - Thanks for following up on the story.
Angel Jr. - We never know who are really homeless when we see those people on the street. One time I went to a meeting near a busy street corner. I had to wait for a friend so I sat in the car till she got there. A van was parked next to me with a couple of people sitting inside. One of the men that had been on the corner came over to the van and bragged about how he would have beer money tonight. They all laughed and applauded at how good that corner was.
I know that my husband has many times given out a hamburger to people sitting on those corners. He will buy one of the Jr. Burgers extra just so he can hand them out. Most of the time the people will say, "God Bless You", but there have been several times when the people complained because they wanted money. It really is hard to tell who really needs help sometimes.
I am totally with you on this one. If you don't work, you don't eat, I am tired of moochers that do nothing but use up the tax dollars that I worked hard to earn. I say we give a hand up, not a hand out, this is ridiculous, if they aren't willing to help themselves, then it is not our job to raise them!
I'm glad Oh Great One did some fact checking because I found the e-mail a bit unbelievable and absolutely disheartening.
If it were true, I would be appalled, but it isn't.
I think there needs to be "hand ups," NOT hand outs. Even if it means cleaning up your community in order to receive a paycheck, that's what you do ... whether you're a Katrina survivor or a person on welfare.
Giving money to someone who isn't working for it is a system destined to fail. With that first handout, the pride is gone.
Just wanted to wish you a Happy Mother's Day, Lucy!
The bill for the buses was over $7000, so with all that expense it looks like they could have gotten the word out a bit better so more people would have attended. So bad on both sides. What a shame.
I don't believe in helping the lazy ones who just plain old don't want to work and think that we all owe them a living.
Whether or not all the facts in the e-mail are true, I wonder too why many of these folks can't get jobs to support themselves. My two boys have been able to find work in Michigan, where jobs are scarce.
I hear there are all kind of employment opportunities rebuilding the storm-struck reason. And I've also heard stories of the entitlement-attitude some of these 'victims' have. Time's up, I say. Our government is in too much debt already.
I think the should be required, just like unemployment, to apply and educate themselves for a certain # of jobs a week. if they dont' get hired, but are making efforts, that is one thing. otherwise, the help stops...that is really sad if it is true. Jobs are scares, but if they are offering them jobs, they should have to take what is offered to make a living as long as the are capable of doing the job. But I guess they ahve to know they have the option in order to take the help. as much as they publisicized (SP?) the actual hurricane, they can make the knowledge of what to do next more well knowns.
I agree with what you're saying. But email hoaxes are so common, it's very important to double check if they're not mad up.
If this information is true it's very shocking assuming everyone had heard about this opportunity.
I agree, there was probably laxness on all sides...
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