Let’s pretend America decides to start all over and finally comes to a consensus that we must try to stop the generational poverty that was shown so clearly during the hurricane Katrina. 

I saw three (maybe four) generations of Americans in Louisiana paralyzed when told to evacuate their homes for their own safety.  I was glued to MSNBC for the coverage of these people who did not seem to realize their lives could be in danger if they didn’t move quickly.  The evacuation orders were based on the knowledge that this hurricane could trigger breaches in the levees from Lake Pontchartrain that would flood the city of New Orleans plus the flooding coming from the Mississippi .  Highway 10 was the way to safety but they waited too long and this exit was soon closed. 

I watched as thousands of people waited for help from any source.  Some swam for safety, some made it to higher ground on the freeway above the flood and some simply drowned.  To stay with their pets, many headed for the roofs of their homes and I can certainly understand that action.  I personally would rather die with my dog than live with the memories that I left her behind to die alone.  

These people who had no car, no public transportation made available to them simply waited for their Mayor, Governor, Congressman, Senator or President to fetch them out of the jaws of death and nothing was available.  There was no plan of evacuation in case of a natural disaster and I believe no plan if a terrorist attack should land on them either.  I have asked myself “why?” a thousand times.  Where was the head of the household or the head of the churches in that district?  Where the hell was the mayor when a long camera shot showed several hundred buses were parked in one area?  I don’t know what made me sicker, the sight of those buses slowly sinking in the water or the people sitting around waiting for help.

What I saw was a poverty of spirit and intelligent survival skills all rolled up into one area of New Orleans .  I know what this means as I too was a single mother living in an area of forest fires in the Santa Monica Mountains that was also smack dab on the San Andreas Fault .  The massive fires often left us in a flood problem and my fear of my old 13 year old car not starting froze my spirits.

I sat and watched the poverty sections of New Orleans wait for help I knew would not come.  When the Red Cross was turned away I knew the situation was hopeless.  When I learned that FEMA had sent them away I was royally pissed!  How dare Homeland Security allow this action?  That was before I realized that the appointed heads of Homeland Security and FEMA were assigned by Bush which meant they could be totally helpless.  I was right, they were!

We may never know how many people died due this lax action by our government sources but I do know we can stop this from ever happening again.  

Why were so many people living in a state of helpless poverty in the first place?  When I heard the media interviews, it became clear that too many of these people were never taught to think for themselves.  I saw sheep waiting for someone to blaze a trail for them to reach safety.  They had no desire to reach dry land and wandered around like deer in the headlights of an oncoming car.

Instead of opening up the stores, like Wal-Mart, to the people so they wouldn’t die for the lack of water and food; instead they screamed “Looters.”  That crap in their stores could never be sold so why not use it to help their neighbors?  Oh, they did a week later when people began to die for lack of water and food.  Wal-Mart should have had clerks helping box up supplies for the families who had lost everything.  Hell even the police got thirsty and hungry and took what they needed to continue in their search for victims.

I’m not letting the victims off easily as when I saw the filth they left in the SportsArena and Convention Hall and made no effort to clean up after themselves I realized that this is also a symptom of poverty.  So let’s talk about stopping this generation after generation of poverty.

Were these people working at the kind of jobs that could raise their families out of poverty?  Did they have enough education to continue learning until they could work in the trades that would put them in demand? 

I could tell that their communication skills were so bad they couldn’t even explain why they were waiting around for somebody to help them.  I know they all are able to learn as well as anyone else how to achieve a higher level of employment but did no one even try to teach them the art of communication that is so necessary for job interviews?  What can we do about this?

What kind of public schools are available to these children?  Is there any guarantee that the kids can accept 12 years of free education and take advantage of that which is not offered to many other children of other countries?  If these schools in Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama are unable to offer these kids the quality of academics to help them out of poverty what in the hell are they teaching?  I would like to knock the heads together of all the Governors and hold their feet to the fire on this most important part of their jobs.  Line up Governor Kathleen  Blanco, Governor Hayley Barbour and Governor Bob Riley and tell me why their children are so ill prepared to learn!  Is it that you don’t have good enough schools?  Teachers? 

What could be more important than the education of your children?  You have allowed the President of the United State to test your children and point out the low reading scores; don’t you care?  Are you waiting for the Federal Government to pump more money into your failed schools?  Are you willing to live with the drop-out rate knowing damn well these kids will never be able to have an education good enough to do more than sell drugs on the street corners?  

If the governors of the states where the schools are failing, can’t fix this mess, why not call in the Peace Corps?  These volunteers go into foreign countries and teach the kids to read, the parents to raise crops and farm animals why not keep them at home and take care of the poverty so sadly taking over so much of our southern states?  I am hearing that many of large inner cities are also showing a large number of people living in poverty.  Has anyone looked into the quality of these schools that breed poverty in nearly every generation?  

How can America ignore this enormous problem?  How can the Governors turn their backs on a percentage of their State residents who are living ill-prepared to take care of themselves?

I hope Katrina woke up the people of America how much poverty lives within the reach of all of us.  When I think of the billions of dollars being sent to Palestine where so many terrorists live, I could scream.  I would hope that every Governor in the U.S.A. takes a pledge to improve the condition of their schools in all our states.  It is not up to the Federal Government to set standards for any student, hell they can’t even locate decent leaders for our Federal Government.  Putting Bush’s pals into official positions has proven to be a disaster!  Let the Feds and their Corps of Engineers fix the levees and this time do it right!

I watch every Governor’s convention on CSPAN and hear them pat each other on the back for some stupid bridge or street and they know damn well the children in their own states are failing academically in every district.  Private schools have been teaching academics for years and have no problems and many times they have written books on the subject but apparently the Governors and School District ’s Board of Education Administrators are too busy to learn how to teach.  

We must pull these kids up to a higher standard and allow them to set goals and learn their own strengths and help fix their weaknesses.  

This is the only solution to poverty and we had better damn well know it!