DC and emergency zone?

[javasaurus]

About 300 refugees from NO are in DC, and the President has declared a state of emergency for DC to make federal funds available to help them. Certainly I applaud the use of federal money to help people in need after Katrina, but declaring a "state of emergency" seems overboard for 300 people, especially since there are homeless in DC every single day who don't warrant such status. If the feds can help 300 get back on their feet after a few days, what about those that have been here for years?

I'm sure I don't have the full picture here. I'm really hoping that this isn't just some sort of political grandstanding to help make up for the slow response in the South. Anybody want to help me out here?

link to related press release.

Comments

executive vs. congressional speeds

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

this sort of thing happens all the time. the issue is speed.

people can get funding 2 ways -- by executive action (comes from the administration's discretionary funds already allocated to the various departments by the last budget), or by legislative action (comes from the congressional discretionary funds which have to pass both houses and the president to be allocated as a matter of law). thus, either the president can call upon a law that already exists in the books, or congress has to pass a new law.

as for "homeless every single day", well you can say that about any town, any city, any time. Jesus said, "The poor will always be with you."

that there are those in the government that believe the government should not be in the business of giving handouts to those who (by their perception) are unwilling to work for themselves, that's a simple fact and no matter what it does to reflect on our society, no other society is any different. those that have tried otherwise (china, soviet russia) simply lowered everybody else to the near-poverty level, which accomplished little.

and nobody has any pretenses that this is to get them "on their feet after a few days" -- these people will be homeless through natural causes for months to years until (note: until, not unless) they decide to really do something about it like move in with a family member in some town in the short term and start over. at this early stage, people are still in too much shock to reach the point of making that decision.

truth be told, there's nothing in the remnants of new orleans that's left for them. if there's anything for them anywhere else is one of the great unanswerables. DC really doesn't have any room for them, and likely doesn't have any more jobs.

in the end, the funding to the 300 (and equivilant funding throughout the country) serves one purpose only: to prevent a large-scale riot.

if the poor and homeless in DC actually organized and planned a riot, trust me, *something* would be done about them. doesn't mean the right thing, or even a good thing, but something would be done. but they don't do that, so nothing new happens.

but 1 million refuges from a city in tatters, now scattered (and broke) throughout the country? THAT's a revolution waiting to happen. and its a revolution that can be bought into silence.

hate seeming so cynical about it, but its how i see it.