Gracious! All of this sounds so familiar!
Almost 69 percent of the 1,081 people queried in the National Science Foundation-funded study conducted in July by political science professors Rick Wilson and Robert Stein said they likely will remain in Houston. That figure is up from about 57 percent in October and 51 percent in September 2005.
[snip]
Almost half have no health insurance. Nearly a third lack a high school diploma. Three-fifths reported they held jobs in New Orleans, but almost half earned less than $15,000 a year. At present, less than 20 percent are employed and about 74 percent earn less than $15,000.
“This means a couple of things,” Wilson said. “One: They have little to go back to. Most of the group were renters, and the rental situation in New Orleans is pretty bleak. Second: Many of them had been working in the service industry, and that is still a little rocky there. … Houston is looking at continuing to shelter a population that didn’t want to be here in the first place. The chances of finding something to go back to are pretty slim. That raises questions of how they are going to be integrated into the city.”
[snip]
“Texas is going to have to urge the rest of the country to recognize the systemic problem with poverty and racism in the country,” he said. “We in Texas will have to show the rest of the country how it’s done. How to help a person. Instead of giving them a fish, teaching them to fish.”
“Teaching them to fish” is a compassionate conservatism catch-phrase and was, at one time, what Republicans said they supported.
Do they still?
It’s an interesting question, because while there’s an unfortunate number of Houstonians who want to teach our new residents to fish by pushing them into the river, Houston is actually a golden opportunity for the beleaguered GOP.
Compassionate conservatism, along with other Republican party planks like smaller government, seems to have been forgotten, but if the Republicans in Texas want to move their party back to the goals of yesteryear, they’ll never have a better chance than this.
The real question is whether compassionate conservatism was ever anything more than a slick, empty phrase to suck voters into the maw.
The real question is whether compassionate conservatism was ever anything more than a slick, empty phrase to suck voters into the maw.
That would be in contrast to what: the “Great Society” that the Dems (under LBJ) foisted on us in the 60s, which was a slick, empty phrase to hide the fact that the program was pushing the poor into a never-ending cycle of dependence on Big Government?
I, for one, consider myself both compassionate – and conservative. I certainly prefer “teaching a man to fish” (that is, help someone to become capable of taking care of themselves), but I believe that private (yes, even “religious”) organizations are better suited for it than government bureaucracies. I throw my support toward a community/faith-based, versus a political-based, solution.
BTW, I was pretty disgusted with the attitude displayed in that meeting w/Mayor White and Chief Hurtt. I understand (and even am sympathetic to) the frustrations that the people in that area are dealing with, but I certainly don’t support the radical solutions they requested – just as I am opposed to the so-called “civility ordinance” (which is another variant of the same thing.)
~EdT.
“teach our new residents to fish by pushing them into the river”
GREAT phrase. An awful lot of people want to teach others how to fish by discussing fishing theory and reading books. Buy someone a fishing pole? No, that’s not part of the plan; they have to read yet another book to learn how to make their own fishing poles. After they sell a few fish they can buy a nicer pole for themselves.
I’m a Midwesterner by birth so I do have a bit of a bootstrap mentality: If your life is awful, it’s your responsibility to do something to make it better. But that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help. You just have to be willing to help yourself.
My favorite charity group is Habitat for Humanity because I believe they do a great job of helping people help themselves. You want a house, you help build it. I love that! You have disabilities and can’t climb a ladder? Make sandwiches for the crews who are building your house. DO something!
I just like to see people making an effort to help themselves, that’s all. I don’t want to see people jumping in the river & drowning while trying to catch fish, but I do want them to come on out to the dock with their free fishing poles instead of parking in front of the TV and complaining to reporters that nobody is bringing them any fish, and when they pawned the lousy fishing pole they only got enough cash for one pack of cigarettes.
Mmmmm fish. I had catfish at Mel’s (Tomball) for lunch. Mmmmm.
Before you put all those people back to work, you’re going to have to find them cars, or recreate the pre-K New Orleans transit system, which could get you virtually anywhere in an hour to an hour-and-a-half for a buck-and-a-quarter. I suspect Houston’s system isn’t up to that. So how to you get all these people to a job? Are there enough low-level jobs out there to integrate them? NOLA’s reliance on the tourism industry has been a crutch that allowed the city to not have to deal with this population. Instead we provided a lot of jobs as maids, busboys, every low level jobs. Are there that many service jobs in Houston? Most relied on relatives for child care, but FEMA shipped people places willy nilly. Unless you’re prepared to buy grandma a ticket and find her an apartment she can afford on Social Security alone, who’s going to provide the childdare all these people need?
It’s an interesting question, because while there’s an unfortunate number of Houstonians who want to teach our new residents to fish by pushing them into the river, Houston is actually a golden opportunity for the beleaguered GOP.
Huh?
While officially “nonpartisan,” the city is led by a strong Democratic Mayor and a Democratic majority on Council.
How exactly do you propose that Houston Republicans enact this agenda you’ve conjured up for them? Magic?
“How exactly do you propose that Houston Republicans enact this agenda you’ve conjured up for them? Magic?”
Not at all… and of course, I’m not a campaign strategist, or even a politician. However, if I were a GOP candidate for any office that was impacted by Katrina evacuees (as Houston was), I would be using the situation to re-approach the CC theories. It’s certainly an issue that is near and dear to the entire metro area, so why aren’t the Republican candidates in the various races talking about solutions? Have I missed it? (Can you give a link or two, if so?)
And I’m not happy that Houston’s shouldering this burden alone, either. The city will need help to deal with the crisis (and it is a crisis); not just “the crime”, but the wider economic ramifications.
I’d like to hear the Governor’s race include the dialogue…. NOT Kinky’s worthless “send them back” garbage. Kinky’s not helpful, and Perry should be coming back with something substantive — all the candidates from Texas should. because it’s not a small issue. It’s massive.
The attitude has been, They’re not fishing? Toss them back into the water!”
The better approach is “Why aren’t they fishing?”
As Mark Folse described in the comment above yours, there are a number of factors. But giving up on these folks isn’t actually an option. At all.
As it happens, I agree with Smukke. If we’ve got the pole, and the bait, then someone sitting in the den rather than on the riverbank is NOT okay. But first let’s do something about that pole. Otherwise, this situation will only get worse.
Mark Folse did a great job outlining the fishing gear that’s missing…
[ed.] Not trying to start a dialogue about Kinky, btw. Just reacting to a position statement, and where a gubernatorial candidate might have an opening. Kinky’s a whole different kettle of fish (as it were…)
I noticed you shrewdly failed to quote these facts from the article:
… In late August, more than 1,700 westside residents attended a session with Mayor Bill White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt, who announced formation of a 140-officer unit to combat crime in evacuee-filled neighborhoods there.
Police report that 59 of the 262 Houston murders between Jan. 1 and Aug. 26 involved Katrina evacuees as victims or suspects. …
That is 6% of the city’s population accounting for almost 23% of the murders! Consider that and know these percentiles carry over (but on an ever greater percent according to police stats) to other crimes from shoplifting, and burglary to armed robbery, and rape. When I brought up this and other public information in another post you said they were :
(1) myths
(2) lies
(3) irrelevancies
(4) legends ??
Have you got the facts now? Because you still have not been able show me what exact statements in my post rides with which of your own fantasy Four Horsemen.
I find it interesting you call yourself an “independent” or “moderate” but somehow always manage to put Republicans and Conservatives in a bad light no matter how many mirrors it takes you to bounce the bad light around.
Houston is run almost exclusively by Democrats, from mayor to janitor. I’m amazed even you, with your eminent reflective-glass agility, were able to find some manner to make it a Republican issue!
But what really defies all semblance of logic is your Howard-Deanish twist on the quote: … he said. “We in Texas will have to show the rest of the country how it’s done. How to help a person. Instead of giving them a fish, teaching them to fish.”
Reading your blog, a person would be led to believe this statement would be attributed to some high-ranking member of, if not the state, at least the Houston Republican Party. So, going back to the source, whom do we find making the statement? Why none other than that GREAT Republican fisher-and-statesman, Nation of Islam Minister the Honorable Robert Muhammad!
Say what?!? The title of the blog entry is “ The GOP, and fishing in Houston , so at least the guy talking about fishing MUST be Republican! Right? Oh well, that must be more of that independent moderateness coming out in Polimom.
Tell you something my dad taught me long ago while I was learning saltwater fishing near Matagorda. The bait shops along the bays and such fly flags to tell people what kind of bait they have available. For example a three-cornered pennant flag means they have shrimp. If the flag is white, they have live shrimp and if it is black, dead shrimp.
Usually if you’re fishing for red(drum)fish or especially specks (speckled trout) you want live shrimp. So you buy the live shrimp, put them in a double bait bucket (a bucket with small holes in it that fits neatly inside another bucket without holes) with water and as soon as you get to where you’re going to fish, take out the inner bucket and get it (and the shrimp) into free-flowing water.
Now here’s the catch (bad pun), to get one of those live shrimp on your hook, you must reach into that smallish bucket with a few dozen live shrimp and pull one out – this is an art of sorts. For you see, shrimp have barbs on their tails and if you don’t do it correctly, a shrimp will spin and flip that tail barb right into your fingers and hands and to quote an old Cajun, “Do it hurt? Well I told ya’ it hurt like hell, I guarantee!”
You can teach people how to catch fish pretty easy. Cork goes under, a tug on your line and you set the hook and bring in the fish. But they have to learn to bait their own hooks. Nobody else should be doing that for you after the first few times because they have some fishing to do themselves. Some people won’t put up with the shrimptail pains or even the effort to dig worms and never care enough to bait their own the hook, be it live shrimp or live worms. So they don’t fish no matter how well you teach them to catch fish. They just go back to asking you for fish.
I’ll end this long-winded post with a quote From the Notebook of Lazarus Long: When the monkeys learn they can vote themselves bananas, they’ll never climb a tree again.
Mark Folse says – recreate the pre-K New Orleans transit system
Mark if you can help us find a way to do it and serve ALL of Houston that the tax money to do it comes from, I’m right there with you.
Thing is as of the 2006 numbers, Houston covers just-less-than 700 sq.ml. (that’s a heck of a bus route) as opposed to New Orleans 350 sq.ml..
Polimom says – The better approach is “Why aren’t they fishing?”
Lady, PLEASE re-read this
From the Chronicle article – … Nearly a third lack a high school diploma. Three-fifths reported they held jobs in New Orleans, but almost half earned less than $15,000 a year. At present, less than 20 percent are employed and about 74 percent earn less than $15,000.
Of the people that are going to stay here, about half or 70,000 of the 150,000 people didn’t “fish” in New Orleans where apparently, from what you’ve said, it’s much better than Houston, with more jobs for them, that they can get to, according to Mark. So why weren’t y’all asking that 70,000 “Why aren’t they fishing?” in New Orleans? Why didn’t you ask the 50,000 of them to get their high school diploma when in New Orleans?
We were just trying to keep children from starving, suffering thirst, and injury; trying to keep people from any more harm we could; trying to be good neighbors and keep those neighbors from dying. We were just trying to HELP when no one else would!
Nobody planned to “keep all those to raise,” as Texans say in the vernacular for goodness sake.
Did you hear the Louisiana governess last week on the satellite feed?
Speaking of politicians opening mouth, inserting foot! Democrat Governess Kathleen Blanco was giving the – oh yea, Louisiana is ready for all the parties again. “New Orleans is doing great” rah-rah and maybe better than before, she beamed with great delight how the Big Easy was experiencing the “lowest crime rate and the lowest unemployment rate in the city’s history.” To which a Houston reporter reminded her of all the homeless, unemployed and violent criminals that were sent to, and continue to stay, in Houston and what it’s done our city’s population and budget in these areas. Her reply was to thank the kindness of Houstonians for taking all those (unemployed criminals) in to your city.
Reminded me of Castro thanking President Jimmy Carter for taking in those boatloads of criminals and mentally insane when he emptied Cuba’s prisons and asylums and shipped the inmates to Florida back a few years.
I, nor are any others here, believe all the Louisiana people staying in the Houston area are “beggers, robbers, and thieves” as the song goes but it is CLEAR from the facts, a disproportionately large percentage are of the criminal element. The facts prove that out over and over.
Polimom,
Indeed, this is the issue that never seems to go away. An amazing number of people just don’t seem to get it that there is no place for many of these people to go back to. Their former homes (apartments mostly) are destroyed, and even if rebuilt, are unlikely to be as affordable as the old structures. The come from a geographically compact city with a public transportation system that allowed them to get around–as long as they weren’t in a hurry. There were an adequate number of low wage jobs that had very undemanding educational requirements.
They are now in the biggest city (geographically) in the US. The public transportation system in Houston is poor, in part because of the sheer size of the city (Houston is approximately half the area of the state of Rhode Island), and in part because the emphasis of Houston has always been on the automobile, not public transit. The low wage, low skill jobs that existed in Houston were already filled by others.
These people are fish out of water (to keep the fishing metaphor going) and they plan to stay here not because they love Houston, but because the alternatives are to 1) die, and 2) pick up and go somewhere else they don’t understand, that doesn’t particularly want them, that has no better resources to help them, and hope that things will somehow work out better. Their prospects are grim.
The question is “what should Houston be doing about these folks?” ‘Ship them out!’ is a knee-jerk emotional response. It makes the person saying it feel good (briefly) but does nothing to solve the problem. Mark Folse listed some of the barriers to success that these folks face. In previous posts you have described these and other barriers. If Houston does not want to have these tens of thousands of people on public assistance for the rest of their lives, then what actions should be taken to remove the barriers and help these folks make the transition to self-sufficiency? Who should lead? What’s the plan?
The suggestion that the party out of power in Houston (Republicans) could be coming up with creative proposals that demonstrate both the compassion and the conservatism of Compassionate Conservatism is good. Of course, the Democrats who hold power in Houston should feel free to get creative too. Someone needs to come up with a program, and not an emotional reaction.
If there was a “fishing program” (a 12-step program? a two-year plan?) to teach these folks how to fish, I believe the money could be found for it. The problem is that the existing patchwork of public and private assistance is not coordinated and is not focused on achieving that outcome. As such, these folks are being (barely) supported by others, but are not being shown how to support themselves in their new environment.
Unless someone, some party, or some institution can come up with a “fishing program” that teaches the way to self sufficiency, I suspect many of these folks will be on public assistance the rest of their lives. Some unhappy Houstonians may rail at the prospect, but again, that just makes the unhappy people feel good (briefly). The problem isn’t changed a bit.
The Master, I hear what you are saying and on paper (or screen), in a perfect world, your conclusion … someone, some party, or some institution can come up with a “fishing program” that teaches the way to self sufficiency, … makes a tidy, neatly folded answer.
But you, Polimom, and others are desperately straining your eyes to avoid seeing, and with seeing, prudently reflecting on, the rather large, pink elephant in the room. For whatever reason, almost one-half of these people were not working when in their comparable comfort zone, New Orleans.
These folks had close family and friends; a reportedly great mass-transit system, which apparently could get everyone who wanted one to a low paying, but sufficiently survivable, and available job. And with all that great stuff going for them, they still were not working. Please understand, we are NOT talking about the elderly, kids, or teenagers. The statistics are based on people capable, and of age, to work.
You can’t make people work (fish) if they don’t want to. They were getting government assistance before the storm and for a year they have collected free room and board from the taxpayers. Y’all may not like to see the pink elephant, but there it sits, in a motel/hotel room with maid service and color TV.
The Mas says – … people just don’t seem to get it that there is no place for many of these people to go back to …
It was ALWAYS planned for these long-suffering people to go home. There has been a government program paying millions to make that happen. There is government-purchased land that can be used temporarily until the lots where their homes were becomes available for these great federal-government-paid-for trailer homes. The land has already been factored in, once again at federal government expense, with connections to New Orleans’ mass-transit system.
All these free trailers are and have been for almost nine months, parked going through thorough inspections before the feds will turn them over to the people. Why so long you ask? Because, God forbid, if there is some kind of malfunction and a family dies, there will be so many lawyers lined up to litigate the case against the government, the city would have to create a new Alderman District just for them.
Remember the bus taking invalids and the elderly evacuees from a Houston-area nursing home that burst into flame and killed 23? There were lawyers waiting there before the bodies cooled.
The end result: see what cities offers to take refugees when a big hurricane actually hits the Crescent City (or Galveston, or Houston) as opposed to a big storm just grazing the city’s west side. Oh well, at least until then New Orleans has “lowest crime rate and the lowest unemployment rate in the city’s history.”
Great comments. I’ll add just one point. To the extent that we look to and fund government solutions to this problem then to that extent we will be doubly disappointed in the results and ultimately pay the toll twice over. Government has used many of the K victims for years; payed them to live on it’s “Welfare Plantation” in exchange for their vote. Government failed to train them for the workforce, failed to evacuate them efficiently ahead of the debacle that was Katrina; failed to take constructive steps to helping them achieving financial independence; failed to rebuild the Plantation in NOLA and continues to fail to assist them in finding meaningful and productive lives. There are jobs; but they aren’t where they are presently housed. There are educational opportunities, but not where they are presently housed.
The only effective way to help these people is for the various community groups in Harris and surrounding counties to actively unite, form a plan, and then reach out to these people, one family at a time, inventory both their needs and their skills, match those needs and skills with jobs and housing near those jobs, and then transition them into educational opportunities necessary to achieve sustaining employment. Do it yourselves or watch your government of incompentent, grandstanding bafoons waste buckets of your tax dollars in ill conceived bullcrap programs, most of which will further alienate and strand those it tries to help.
Glide………….(Lord, if only I could spell)
Most are not coming back to NOLA or Louisiana. Most didn’t take personal responsibility before Katrina and won’t now. NOLA was destroyed over the last 30 years by the huge public housing projects within the city. They became little centers of crime and squalor. Not even the cops would follow the criminals in there. These are the people that stayed behind and now live in Houston. (not all that way but many).
I have no solution for helping them as I don’t think they want to be helped. I saw a 75 year old woman on TV say “they’ve been taking care of me my whole life and now they want to kick me out”……That’s what you are dealing with. Multiple generations on public assistance with no desire to get out. It’s obviously too late to do anything for the 75 year olds but possibly we can get some of the youths to get off there ass and do something for themselves.
First a correction of fact: Lazarus said as opposed to a big storm just grazing the city’s west side.
This is miswritten. It should read: as opposed to the west (weak) side of a big storm just grazing the city’s east side.
That done; Glide and roux, your comments combined pretty well assesses the situation. We are screwed.
The ‘free banana syndrome’ (FBS) firmly in place for the past 60+ years (call it the “New Deal” or “Great Society”) will continue in this country because any time a political organization actually tries to change it, the other organization promises to vote in more bananas and the Banana Buyers are back in power.
The really crazy thing is the United States of America now are Banana Buyers for the entire WORLD! You want to fix things in the USA? Quit sending so much money on other countries. Use it to help our own people that need fishing poles and would payback loans for boats – and to those that don’t want to fish, they can damn well cut bait!!
It’s not going to happen. Heck, we’re so infatuated with the FBS, we’re providing fruit in countries the people either now are, or recently were, our sworn-to-the-death enemies! We got not just our own people hooked into the “Welfare Plantation,” we addicted the entire globe. It’s called the United Nations.
You really think when our bloated system comes near collapse slipping on its own bananapeels, and China becomes the economic powerhouse of the world, they are going to send bananas (money) to the USA?? How about Russia? Germany? the Islamic Nations (okay, they might until the oil money runs out – that is if we agree to start beating our women correctly)? I know, we can count on the United Nations – right ?? Oh yea, that’s going to happen, you can bank on it – the check’s in the mail.
Let’s all sing along, “Yes, we have no bananas. We have no bananas today.
Oh well, we have tomorrow (putting on my rosy-tinted glasses that makes pink elephants disappear) After all … tomorrow is another day.! (That sounds strangely familiar…Nevermind. Hey! I’ll write a book and make that the last line! Then just sit back and watch the bananas roll in!)
And bloggers will move on to their next talking point, modern day equivalent to the 1920’s ‘placard-board men’ who walked the big city streets wearing signs on their front and back telling everyone else what is wrong with them – every once in a while being squished by an invisible pink elephant.
Glide, you read my mind. Scary.
Ed T said:
In terms of the “doing”, I totally agree, Ed, but I think the problem (I think I’m going to start using the term crisis) is much larger than can be approached with a small-scale, scatter-shot approach. It is going to require coordination, resource pooling, and a joint effort across the board.
That calls for leadership. Someone has to rally Houston, articulate the issues coherently, and then describe a vision. (read: a plan) That strikes me as an enormous opportunity for someone in an election year…. which was, of course, partly the point of this post.
Roux is right, as is Mark. Many of the folks who came here from New Orleans face a host of problems they are utterly unprepared to handle. Some may never be able to. Personally, I place the largest blame for how this came about squarely on New Orleans’ failed city schools and economy, though the foundation was laid with many bricks.
And for those who simply assume that because it’s truly an enormous problem we simply cannot hope to solve it… that’s only a given outcome if one doesn’t try. There is, though, one certain outcome if we don’t try: parts of Houston will become pockets of irredeemable, cyclic poverty. Like New Orleans had.
Polimom says – And for those who simply assume that because it’s truly an enormous problem we simply cannot hope to solve it… that’s only a given outcome if one doesn’t try. There is, though, one certain outcome if we don’t try: parts of Houston will become pockets of irredeemable, cyclic poverty. Like New Orleans had.
Oh, it’ll get solved. The easy way, or the hard way; one way or another; it’ll get solved because this is Texas, not New Orleans. We’ve learned the hard way not to let our wounds fester. Either everyone works together to heal it – or it gets cut out.